Feeling confident

EP hunting for Currie Cup double over Eagles

The EP Elephants have set their sights on achieving a double over regional rivals the SWD Eagles when the teams clash in the Currie Cup First Division in Riversdale tomorrow.

After beating the Eagles 2010 in their opening game of the season, EP head to the Riversville Stadium in a confident mood for their sixth game of the competition (kickoff 3pm).

In their last match, EP fought back to overturn a halftime deficit to edge the Border Bulldogs 22-15 in a derby clash in Despatch.

Against expectations, Border led 15-10 at halftime and for a while it looked as though the fired-up visitors were on course to pull off an upset victory at the De Wet Stadium.

The win allowed EP to stay in touch with log leaders the Boland Cavaliers, who slumped to a 33-32 defeat against the Leopards in Potchefstroom.

EP have won four of their opening five games and will be hoping Boland drop more log points in the second round of the competition.

“I think EP needed a break and I am hoping to see the boys back ready to go again after our bye weekend,” EP manager Rafiek Hermans said.

“SWD have improved as a team and we should prepare thoroughly for a tough match in Riversdale.

“We must remember this is a new round and will not be the same as the first round.

“EP know that the Eagles scrum has improved incredibly and will need to be ready for the set piece.

“We also know from the first game at the Wolfson Stadium that the Eagles have pacy backs so we will have to manage the speed of the game.

“After losing to Boland, one would have thought that the challenge would have become a big one.

“But as we saw no-one can count their chickens as yet.

“We will go through the whole season preparing game by game.

“The standard keeps improving but we know that we as EP can play better and need to improve from the first round to make the finals.”

This weekend will see three international teams join the action in the Mzansi Challenge, which is running parallel with the First Division but with different logs being used.

Despite two of the original teams (Barcelona Diables and Tel Aviv Heat) not being in the final line-up, there is plenty of action for players and fans to look forward to.

Zimbabwe Goshawks coach Brendan Dawson said a lack of finances had forced his team to pull out of the first three rounds of the competition.

They were scheduled to face the Leopards (March 25), EP Elephants (April 1) and Boland Cavaliers (April 8) in the opening rounds of the tournament.

The SA teams will all be awarded league points for the cancelled matches.

The Elephants will face the Kenyan Simbas, Welwitschias (Namibia) and the San Clemente Rhinos (Mexico/ USA) in the tournament.

Bay rugby fans can look forward to the Simbas playing at the Adcock Stadium.

EP will travel to Windhoek to play Namibia and their game against the San Clemente Rhinos will be played in Cape Town.

Hermans says his team were looking forward to measuring themselves against international teams.