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East London - The Border Bulldogs were completely outplayed 38-17 by a rampant Boland Cavaliers side at a cool, windy Buffalo City Stadium in East London on Thursday in a Currie Cup qualifier encounter that failed to live up to its promise.
The first half, with Boland playing into a strong wind, was error-strewn, with both sides missing elementary passes, with a number of knock-ons, and even the referee made an error when he failed to pick up a forward pass by Boland which almost led to a try.
Only the last 25 minutes or so of the match was really entertaining with Border making valiant efforts to score, but at the same time they made silly errors, left gaping holes in their defence and they even lost a vital lineout which led to prop Francois Hanekom’s try virtually on the Border line.
The half-time score was 17-5 in favour of Boland.
For Boland, who picked up a valuable bonus point and stormed into second place on the log with 35 points after nine matches, fullback Nico Scheepers had his kicking boots on, converting five tries and succeeding with a penalty.
Some inept tackling by Border and poor lineout work allowed Boland to run in five tries.
But on one occasion in the second half Boland infringed on their line resulting in a penalty try to the home team. Replacement fullback Logan Basson converted.
The one redeeming action by Border which exciting their fans was a storming run by centre Makazola Mapimpi down the left touchline just before the final whistle. He evaded a couple of tackles and scored just to the left of the posts but Basson’s conversion attempt hit the left upright.
Scorers:
Border Bulldogs
Try: Billy Dutton,
Conversion: Logan Basson
Boland Cavaliers
Tries: Shaun Adendorff, Ryan Nell, Chadley Wenn (2), Francois Hanekom
Conversions: Nico Scheepers (5)
Penalty: Scheepers (1)
