DHL Western Province beat hosts Border Bulldogs by 29-16 in a highly-entertaining Vodacom Cup, Round Four match at Buffalo City Stadium in East London on Friday, the visitors taking a bonus point after scoring five tries to Border’s one.
The ever-improving Bulldogs, who were certainly not overawed by their more illustrious opponents, played well as a team and appear to be gelling into an excellent outfit.
Their narrow 18-17 win last week over the Simba XV has certainly given them plenty of confidence, however, it was not enough to prevent DHL WP from picking up a third win of 2014 and their first away from home.
Border’s nuggety scrumhalf Mario Noordman played well and set up a number of exciting movements for the Bulldogs while his bullet-like passes kept his back-line moving nicely.
In the second minute he used a chip-kick wisely about 25 metres out and a line-out was formed virtually on the WP tryline, but their defence held and a penalty pushed the home side back.
Province opened the scoring when their strong No.8 Rayn Smid – fresh off a hat-trick against the EP Kings XV last weekend – dived over in the sixth minute after a fine movement along the right side by the Province backs. Flyhalf Gary van Aswegen converted.
Three minutes later DHL WP were penalised for hands in the ruck and Border centre Jeffrey Taljard made no mistake with an excellent penalty about 30 metres out.
Border kept up their attack and Noordman was rewarded when he dived over close to the right-hand post for Taljard to add the two points. Taljard was on target with a further penalty moments later and Border held a six-point cushion at 13-7.
However, disaster struck the visitors when they lost a key man to what looked to be a serious injury. Tough tighthead prop Deacon Chowles received some urgent attention after a heavy tackle and eventually the stretcher-bearers had to take him off and he was replaced by Christo van Wyk.
Just before half-time Noordman made his first error when his relieving kick close to the Border goalline was charged down and, as a result, Smid went over for his second try but Van Aswegan missed the conversion.
WP scored again exactly on half-time when fullback Adrian Roberts swooped on the ball and forced his way over and again Van Aswegen failed with the conversion, as WP went into the break at 17-13 up.
Both teams went on the attack after the break and in the eighth minute Taljard missed a chance with a penalty kick some 30 metres out after the Province backline was adjudged off-side, pulling the ball wide to the left side of the posts.
The first score after half-time came after 21 minutes and again it was a try to Province. Slippery right-wing J P Lewis was on hand to dive over after some sloppy Border defence, which had more holes than a slab of Swiss cheese. This time Roberts was successful with the conversion.
Province tried a few scissors-movements and it was Lewis who, seeing a huge gap again in virtually the same position on the right side, barged over in the right-hand corner for his second try, but reserve back Janco Gunter missed a difficult conversion.
The last few minutes saw Province attacking strongly, but Border held on determinedly to prevent any further scoring.
The scorers:
For the Border Bulldogs
Try: Noordman
Con: Taljard
Pens: Taljard 2, N Jacobs
For DHL Western Province:
Tries: Smid 2, Roberts, Lewis 2
Cons: Van Aswegen, Roberts
The teams:
Border Bulldogs: 15 Michael Makase, 14 Makazole Maphimpi, 13 Ruan Jacobs, 12 Jeff Taljard, 11 Sipho Nofemele, 10 Thembani Mkokeli, 9 Mario Noordman, 8 Gareth Krause, 7 Nkosi Nofuma, 6 Siya Mdaka (captain), 5 Wayne Lemley, 4 Lindokuhle Welemu, 3 Johannes Jonker, 2 Mihlali Mpafi, 1 Blake Kyd.
Replacements: 16 Bryce Rennie, 17 Yanga Xakalashe, 18 Wandile Putuma, 19 Bonga Mntunjani, 20 Skhangele Mateza, 21 Niell Jacobs, 22 Siya Pati.
DHL Western Province: 15 Adrian Roberts, 14 JP Lewis, 13 Johnny Kotze, 12 Kyle Lombard, 11 Devon Williams, 10 Gary van Aswegen, 9 Dylon Frylinck, 8 Rayn Smid, 7 Reuben Johannes, 6 Rohan Kitshoff (captain), 5 Jan Uys, 4 Carel du Preez, 3 Deacon Chowles, 2 Michael Kennedy, 1 Alistair Vermaak.
Replacements: 16 Chad Solomon, 17 Christo van Wyk, 18 Ian Groenewald, 19 Ruan Vermaak, 20 Freddie Muller, 21 Tiger Bax, 22 Janco Gunter.
Referee: Christie du Preez
