The Sanlam Boland Cavaliers know they have their destiny in their own hands as they prepare for a final SA Cup league fixture against the Eastern Province Elephants this coming weekend (Saturday, 10 May) in Gqeberha.
Boland earned two valuable bonus points in a 32-34 loss to the Airlink Pumas in this past weekend’s SA Cup clash in Wellington, to stay in the top four on the log and take a step closer to qualifying for the semi-finals and also gain promotion to the Currie Cup Premier Division.
A win against the Elephants on Saturday at the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium should be enough for the Cavaliers to book a semi-final spot and get Currie Cup promotion. After eight rounds, they sit on 27 points, followed by the Novavit Griffons in fifth on 26 points and Valke in sixth with 25 points. They are also still in the race for a semi-final spot and Currie Cup promotion.
Cavas’ head coach, Hawies Fourie, however, expects their final round game to be a tough encounter against an Elephants team, coached by former Springbok coach Allister Coetzee, who did Boland a huge favour over the weekend by beating the Griffons 20-14 in Gqeberha.
And of not underestimating the Elephants, Fourie says: “We play Eastern Province in Port Elizabeth next week, which will be a tough encounter after they managed to beat the Griffons with a try in the last minute [and] that tells me a lot about their character and their fighting spirit in the team.”
Fourie adds that his side would have loved to beat the Pumas and book their spot in the SA Cup semi-finals a week earlier, but was satisfied with how his side stood up to the physical challenge from the visitors from up north.
“There are many things that we have to work on,” Fourie says. “We are still conceding too many penalties, especially at scrum time.
“I felt it was unnecessary that we conceded two penalties on our throw-in at the scrum. That breaks your momentum, and you lose territory and possession. But there are a lot of positives as well. we could match the Pumas’ physicality for most of the game, and if one or two things went the other way, the result could have been different.”
“We can be proud of our performance, and we have to regroup now and put this game behind us as quickly as possible. It’s still within our own control if we qualify for the semi-finals or not. It is a big week coming up for the Cavaliers team.”