The Border U18 Craven week side opened their rugby week with a bitterly disappointing 48-15 loss against the Blue Bulls at Kearsney College in Durban yesterday afternoon.
The team suffered from poor decision-making, a misfiring lineout and a number of errors that all contributed to the humbling scoreline, despite the side giving a good account of themselves in the opening 50 minutes of the match.
At that stage Border were trailing 19-15 and well in the match and probably should have been ahead had they taken their chances. But the Bulls ran rampant in the final 20 minutes to run in four unanswered tries to claim a resounding win.
Border will need to go back to the drawing board and look to take their chances when given them after turning down a couple of early chances at goal in favour of setting up lineouts which they then duly lost.
To the Bulls’ credit they were superb at lineout and were deadly, taking almost every chance afforded to them.
The match began with back and forth play that saw the Bulls with a chance to open the scoring in the fourth minute, but flyhalf Ruan de Swardt left his effort short with Border clearing.
Early infringements at the breakdown from the Bulls allowed Border to get into their 22m and after the ref awarded another penalty to Border on the 5m line in the 11th minute they opted to go for the lineout instead of posts – and duly lost it.
The Bulls then punished them by going ahead two minutes later, when Border, back on the Bulls’ 22m on attack, had the ball ripped from them with the Bulls setting off on a breathtaking counter-attack that ended with right-wing Lincoln Daniels going over next to the posts and De Swardt adding the extras.
Another lost Border lineout led to the Bulls’ second try as they poached the ball on Border’s 22m and spread it across to the opposite side of the field where Border ran out of defenders and Bulls fullback Abner van Reenen went over untouched in the left-hand corner for an unconverted score.
Border finally got on the scoreboard when given their third penalty in the Bulls 22m, which flyhalf Siphosethu Dlongodlongo duly popped over making it 12-3 after 24 minutes.
The Bulls however, continued their trend of coming away from Border’s 22m with points every time – three minutes later when from a ruck De Swardt exploited a huge gap in Border's defence to ghost through and dive over next to the polls, adding the easy extras himself.
The Bulls’ breakdown transgressions finally caught up with them as lock Ryno Pieterse was sent to the bin in the 32nd minute, but Border could not exploit the extra man in the three minutes to halftime going into the break 19-3 down.
Border came out all guns blazing in the second half, looking to utilise their extra man advantage with Pieterse still out for seven minutes, and they took full advantage.
First Border came agonisingly close to scoring just after kickoff when the ball was ripped from a Bulls player and Border fullback Aphelele Fasi picked up and streaked away before being tackled metres short and knocking-on.
But Border came storming back and a good break in the Bulls half saw a superb offload to Border flank Libongo Yapi who sprinted 20m to score next to the uprights with Dlongdlongo slotting the conversion.
Two minutes later and Border were back in it as scrumhalf James Bruce picked up the ball at a ruck in the Bulls half, sold an outrageous dummy and put on the after-burners through a gap to go over in the right-hand corner for an unconverted try and make it 19-15.
The Bulls however then returned to their full complement a few minutes later and punished a tiring Border defence from the 50th minute on with four further tries.
Border get Bullwacked
The team suffered from poor decision-making, a misfiring lineout and a number of errors that all contributed to the humbling scoreline, despite the side giving a good account of themselves in the opening 50 minutes of the match.
At that stage Border were trailing 19-15 and well in the match and probably should have been ahead had they taken their chances. But the Bulls ran rampant in the final 20 minutes to run in four unanswered tries to claim a resounding win.
Border will need to go back to the drawing board and look to take their chances when given them after turning down a couple of early chances at goal in favour of setting up lineouts which they then duly lost.
To the Bulls’ credit they were superb at lineout and were deadly, taking almost every chance afforded to them.
The match began with back and forth play that saw the Bulls with a chance to open the scoring in the fourth minute, but flyhalf Ruan de Swardt left his effort short with Border clearing.
Early infringements at the breakdown from the Bulls allowed Border to get into their 22m and after the ref awarded another penalty to Border on the 5m line in the 11th minute they opted to go for the lineout instead of posts – and duly lost it.
The Bulls then punished them by going ahead two minutes later, when Border, back on the Bulls’ 22m on attack, had the ball ripped from them with the Bulls setting off on a breathtaking counter-attack that ended with right-wing Lincoln Daniels going over next to the posts and De Swardt adding the extras.
Another lost Border lineout led to the Bulls’ second try as they poached the ball on Border’s 22m and spread it across to the opposite side of the field where Border ran out of defenders and Bulls fullback Abner van Reenen went over untouched in the left-hand corner for an unconverted score.
Border finally got on the scoreboard when given their third penalty in the Bulls 22m, which flyhalf Siphosethu Dlongodlongo duly popped over making it 12-3 after 24 minutes.
The Bulls however, continued their trend of coming away from Border’s 22m with points every time – three minutes later when from a ruck De Swardt exploited a huge gap in Border's defence to ghost through and dive over next to the polls, adding the easy extras himself.
The Bulls’ breakdown transgressions finally caught up with them as lock Ryno Pieterse was sent to the bin in the 32nd minute, but Border could not exploit the extra man in the three minutes to halftime going into the break 19-3 down.
Border came out all guns blazing in the second half, looking to utilise their extra man advantage with Pieterse still out for seven minutes, and they took full advantage.
First Border came agonisingly close to scoring just after kickoff when the ball was ripped from a Bulls player and Border fullback Aphelele Fasi picked up and streaked away before being tackled metres short and knocking-on.
But Border came storming back and a good break in the Bulls half saw a superb offload to Border flank Libongo Yapi who sprinted 20m to score next to the uprights with Dlongdlongo slotting the conversion.
Two minutes later and Border were back in it as scrumhalf James Bruce picked up the ball at a ruck in the Bulls half, sold an outrageous dummy and put on the after-burners through a gap to go over in the right-hand corner for an unconverted try and make it 19-15.
The Bulls however then returned to their full complement a few minutes later and punished a tiring Border defence from the 50th minute on with four further tries.
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