WP see off plucky Bulldogs

Johannesburg - Reigning champions Western Province had to dig deep to beat last placed Border Bulldogs 22-13 in their Vodacom Cup match in Paarl on Saturday.

Border came out firing and kept WP under pressure for most of the first half.

The visitors scored the first points of the match after a good break by their winger Joe Seerane. He sliced through the WP backline and was eventually dragged down five metres from the tryline.

Border fullback Duane Adams collected the ball from the ruck and dove over effortlessly for the try. They scored their second try 10 minutes later when flanker Juan Bester scored in the same corner after yet another Border attack. WP had to wait 30 minutes to cross the Border-tryline when flanker Chris Cloete went over after a rolling maul.

Border had no answer to WP's rolling maul on the day. Flyhalf Kurt Coleman converted to bring his side within three points. A few minutes later Border flyhalf Karlo Aspeling extended his team's lead through a penalty before Coleman kicked another three points on the stroke of half-time to make the score 13-10 to Border.

After the break, the men from Cape Town dotted down for the second time after a well worked attack with winger Devon Williams scoring in the corner.

Minutes later a rolling maul produced the third try for Western Province when replacement-hooker Jody Reyneke dove over. Late in the game Border launched waves of attacks, but WP kept them scoreless in the second half.

Scorers:

Western Province:

Tries: Devon Williams, Chris Cloete, Jody Reyneke.

Conversions: Kurt Coleman (2)

Penalty: Coleman

Border:

Tries Duane Adams, Juan Bester

Penalty: Karlo Aspelling