THE BORDER Bulldogs will be looking for nothing but a win to lift themselves off the bottom of the Absa Currie Cup First Division table when they host the Valke today.
The bottom of the table scramble, hosted at the Buffalo City Stadium, is scheduled for a 3pm kickoff.
After being handed a humbling defeat in the first round (34-29) at the Barnard Stadium in Kempton Park, the Bulldogs will be looking to turn the tide at home.
The Bulldogs’s coach Paul Flanagan said he was confident his charges could register a victory.
“We keep putting pressure on the Wall and one of these days it’s gonna break and it’s soon.
“We are dealing with the frustrations of losing games by a few points.
“We are going out to win every one of our remaining games by a bonus point if possible because we are targeting a middle of the table finish,” said Flanagan.
The Bulldogs have made three changes to the team that went down 24-19 to the Griffons last weekend in Welkom.
Utility forward and back Shane Spring comes in for Chumani Booi on the wing in the only change in the starting lineup.
Nomani Tonga and Cecil Dumond replace Brian Shabangu and Lolo Waka respectively on the bench.
The Bulldogs are currently rooted to the bottom of the table, one point behind the Valke who are on 17 points.
Following last weekend’s victory over Boland, Valke coach John Williams believes they have enough continuity on their side to win the double over Border.
“We are really looking forward to the game, and we have some momentum on our side which is exactly what we were looking for.
“We’ve struggled a lot this season, just as Border has, but we are starting to get some continuity. As a matter of fact, we’ve only made two forced changes to the team,” he said.
Williams went on to highlight that they are expecting a very organised and structured game from Border, and they are ready for the challenge.
“Border have grown in leaps and bounds this season, and they have some structure, unlike before where they used to run everything.
“But we’ve prepared well for them,” said Williams.
The Billdogs team:
Dale Sabbagh; Shane Spring, Quinton Crocker (v-capt), Dwayne Jenner, Andrew van Wyk; Karlo Aspeling, Shannon Rick; Rynard van Wyk, Gareth Krause (capt), Siya Mdaka, Stephan Gerber, Sthembiso Mhlongo, Wesley Cloete, Dean Muir, Kwezi Mkhafu.
Reserves: Blake Kyd, Renier Schoeman, Juan Pretorius, Nomani Tonga, Neill Jacobs, Ruan Jacobs, Cecil Dumond.