The Border Bulldogs suffered their first defeat in the SuperSport Rugby Challenge when they went down 48-24 against Western Province in a physical encounter at Old Selbornian Rugby Club in East London at the weekend.
Tries from Lonwabo Ntleki, team captain Billy Dutton and conversions from Aphiwe Stemele condemned the local team to defeat, but Bulldogs coach Tiger Mangweni did not see a bleak future for his charges due to the loss.
He instead commended the fighting spirit they displayed against a young and strong opposition.
Mangweni said he was not expecting miracles from his team, which he had only had together for the past two weeks.
“The guys went above and beyond what I was expecting.”
Mangweni conceded his charges could not handle some elements of the game, such as lineouts, but he attributed most of their errors to poor conditioning, which he said was improving.
“We became lazy when we were chasing the opposition, especially in the front row.
“That’s where the opponents broke us. But the team is a work in progress.” The Bulldogs will still be at home in their next fixture against Boland.
Mangweni is hoping the players will gradually sort out their shortcomings as the league kicks into top gear.
“As next week we have a home game, we have to work on our set pieces. The fitness levels are getting better.”
Mangweni spends limited time with his players as most of them have other jobs, but he believes they will be ready for the Currie Cup. He said by playing games week in and week out, they would eventually get better.
“Before playing this tournament we didn’t have enough time to sit down [and plan], but we are trying to find our feet together and get our combinations right.
“My guys defended well and there were times they put the opposition under pressure.
“There was a good effort from our defence, but at the end we ran out of gas,” Mangweni said.
“Everything that went wrong against Province was because of the fitness levels.”
Western Province coach Jerome Paarwater said he knew straight after watching Border beat Zimbabwe Academy 41-16 in their first encounter in the rugby challenge, they had to respect the Bulldogs if they were to stand a chance of beating them.
“We have a lot of respect for Border coming into the competition at the last moment and they played good rugby.
“So we knew it was going to be tough and it was going to be a battle until the end.
“And credit goes to Border – they gave us a tough time and this will help us going further in the competition,” he said. –