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In doing so, WP climbed to third in the South section behind early pace-setters Free State and Boland, but the home side will need to improve markedly if they are to challenge for the title.
Indeed, it was just one week ago that Argentina’s Pampas XV racked up 73 points against the men from East London, although it must be said that WP’s defence was solid enough to ensure a scoreboard shutout.
Border, for all their efforts on a hot afternoon, lost their fourth match on the trot and are, together with the SWD Eagles, rooted to the bottom of the table.
They remain essentially a team of club players trying to stay afloat in a professional competition in which the opposition have far too much ammunition to be overly troubled.
The match never reached any great heights although there were some strong performances from the likes of WP centre Frikkie Welsh, who deservedly crossed for a brace of tries.
Fullback Fabian Juries also once again confirmed that he is much too classy a player to be spending his Saturdays playing at this level, and his quick feet had the Border defence at constant sixes and sevens.
WP opened the scoring in the 13th minute when centre Welsh cut through for the first of his two tries, converted by flyhalf Conrad Hoffmann from an acute angle.
Welsh’s second score after 28 minutes put the home side 12-0 up before skipper Hanyani Shimange drove over from a five-metre lineout five minutes before the break.
The second half rapidly degenerated into a disjointed affair that produced little rugby to remember, and it took WP until the hour mark to cross for their bonus-point try courtesy of replacement back Johann Sadie.
Scrumhalf Dustin Jinka, man of the tournament at the 2009 National Club Champs, kicked the conversion.
Another replacement, Wimpie van der Walt, then scored WP’s fifth try with 11 minutes remaining when he broke away from a rolling maul and ran 20 metres before diving over in the right-hand corner.
The final stages produced little to write home about and when the clock eventually ran down, it elicited an ironic cheer from the small crowd who had arrived early hoping to watch some good rugby, but ended up witnessing a display of questionable quality.
Scorers:
WP 29 – Tries: Frikkie Welsh (2), Hanyani Shimange, Johann Sadie, Wimpie van der Walt. Conversions: Conrad Hoffmann, Dustin Jinka.
Border 0
