Ruthless Elephants triumph

A poor performance from the Border Bulldogs in front of a passionate home crowd saw them close out their 2018 SuperSport Rugby Challenge campaign with a whimper as the Eastern Province Elephants claimed their first win of the competition, sealing a 26-14 victory at the Sisa Dukashe Stadium in Mdantsane yesterday afternoon.

It was an error strewn performance from the hosts, while the Elephants were ruthless with the chances they received as they picked up a full house of points.

The visitors were very impressive at the breakdown, as they disrupted the Bulldogs’ play and stole a number of balls, while the home side made a slew of handling errors.

The Bulldogs got the match off to a fast start as they received an early penalty in the third minute, which they kicked to touch on the Elephants’ 5m line.

They secured the lineout and mauled over in the right-hand corner where captain Billy Dutton emerged with the ball to claim the try.

With fullback Xolela Payi ready to take the conversion the video referee called to the ref, wanting to check on the maul.

They ruled that there was changing lanes, with the try overturned and Border penalised.

The visitors then missed the chance to go ahead in the ninth minute as flyhalf Ruben de Vos missed a long range penalty attempt.

The match moved from one side of the field to the next as both teams showed a willingness to run the ball, with some enterprising play, while some big collisions showed the ferocity of the play.

The deadlock was finally broken in the 26th minute as the Bulldogs scored a fantastic long range try.
The Elephants chipped the ball into the Bulldogs’ half, where new man Carlisle Jordaan showed off his talent.

He fielded the ball before making a run, breaking through a fractured Elephants defence and chipped over a defender, collecting the ball.

It was offloaded to eighthman Athenkosi Manentsa, who ran in for the try next to the uprights, as Payi added the extras to lead 7-0.

A shoulder injury to Payi after a tackle around the 30 minute mark saw Lonwabo Ntleki being brought on.

With just a few minutes to go to half-time, the Bulldogs were reduced to 14 men when a big hit from Manentsa on Elephants replacement forward Anele Lungisa was deemed high and dangerous. He was sent to the bin for 10min. The Elephants immediately exploited the extra man, kicking the ball to touch, securing the lineout and mauling over, with prop Xandre Vos emerging with the ball.

De Vos added the extras from towards the left corner to draw the scores level at the break.

The Elephants came out for the second half with all guns blazing, as Lungisa crashed over to the right of the uprights for a converted score.

The Bulldogs had a couple of chances to draw level, but handling errors on attack cost them and this allowed the Elephants to stretch their lead in the 60th minute.

Another knock on, this time just outside the Bulldogs’ 22m, allowed the Elephants to go down the short side, with right wing Riaan Arends going over in the right-hand corner for an unconverted try as they moved 19-7 up.

The Elephants effectively ended the contest seven minutes later as the Bulldogs on attack in the visitors’ 22m knocked on for the umpteenth time, allowing them to break at pace, slicing through the home side’s broken defence, with fullback Michael Botha streaking away to score under the poles.

Simon Bolze popped over the extras, giving the Elephants a comfortable 26-7 lead.