EP women are best in SA - again

The defending champions cruised to a 32-8 victory to dash the hopes of a large and enthusiastic home crowd and end Border's chance of claiming the title for the first time.

EP retained the title the hard way - on the road - beating the Blue Bulls in Pretoria 28-24 in the semifinals before heading to East London for the Eastern Cape derby final.

EP scored six tries to one as their full-strength side turned the tables on a Border team that had beaten them 17-0 in going through the regular season unbeaten.

“We fielded an inexperienced team because of international call-ups in the first match but this time we were at full strength,” EP coach Eric Songwiqi told www.sarugby.co.za.

“It was a very good victory, which was due to the fact that we were mentally and physically stronger. I had studied the Border team and I think our skills were also an important factor.”

EP led 10-3 at halftime but stretched away after the interval with four more tries in their total of six, five of them coming from their healthy contingent of Springbok Women's team players.

Saloma Booysen, Zandile Nojoko (who also kicked a conversion),Lorinda Brown, Nomsebenzi Tsotsobe and Zenay Jordaan were the international scorers while Muntsha Mcwadi was the only non-capped try scorer.

Ntombifuthi Joni-Mdluli scored Border's try while Anneline van Deventer opened the scoring with a drop goal for the home team.

“It was a good crowd with an electrifying atmosphere but I told my players they should not be intimidated,” said Songwiqi. “They focused very well and played some good rugby and corrected the mistakes we had made in beating the Blue Bulls in the semi-final the week before.”

The Golden Lions beat Boland 28-19 in the Section B final at the same venue.