Publications
Partners
To say that this was a basement battle is an understatement: going into the match, the two teams who will join forces to play the British & Irish Lions in June had suffered five defeats and not scored a single log point between them all season.
EP went into the derby on the back of heavy defeats against the SWD Eagles (43-20), Western Province (49-13) and Free State (51-21), while the Bulldogs had fared slightly better, losing 41-17 to the Cheetahs before showing signs of improvement during their 26-16 defeat to WP.
The visitors did however find themselves on the receiving end of referee Jaco Peyper’s whistle (the penalty count was 18-6 to the Elephants) but they shrugged off their indiscipline to score five excellent tries, two of them to rampaging eighthman and man of the match, Lubabalo Mzwakali.
The athletic No 8 scored the Bulldogs’ first try, converted by fullback Reinhard Gerber, before flyhalf Thembani Mkokeli sliced through the EP defence for another seven-pointer.
Despite being outclassed in every facet of play, the Elephants went into the break only seven points adrift thanks to a converted try from industrious No 8 Michael Vermaak.
But any hope of an Elephants victory was squashed as Mzwakali scored his second try shortly after halftime, while there were also tries for huge loosehead prop Patrick Mulamba and replacement flanker Sokhana Mkona, which gave the Bulldogs an invaluable five logs points.
For the home side, lock Trichardt van Tonder scored their second try while flyhalf Marius Muller and left wing Ryan Brown each succeeded with a conversion.
Scorers:
Elephants 14 – Tries: Michael Vermaak, Trichardt van Tonder. Conversions: Marius Muller, Ryan Brown.
Bulldogs 34 – Tries: Lubabalo Mzwakali (2), Thembani Mkokeli, Patrick Mulamba, Sokhana Mkona. Conversions: Reinhard Gerber (3). Penalties: Gerber.
