12 May 2019

Gaborone Hogs winning streak continued on May 11 through a hard fought 35-26 victory over BDF Cheetah in the Super 15 rugby league game played at the Jamili grounds.

Hogs registered their fifth win in a row to solidify their position at the summit of the log and remained the only unbeaten team in the league.

The Hogs were the quickest off the block with Nkululi Ndlela registering their first try as early as the seventh minute, but their lead was short lived as Thabang Diphera gave Cheetahs a 5-7 lead with a try and a conversion.

Hogs’ Kagiso Kgomela produced play of the game in the 20th minute when he plucked the ball out of the thin air and made a sole 22 metre run to touch down by the try line and put his team back into contention and gave Hogs 15-14 half time lead.

With both teams tightly posed at 26-25 in favour of the Hogs with 13 minutes remaining, Hogs winning streak was hanging by a thread as their lineout was wobbly but there was however no repeat of a shambolic scrum as witnessed in the first half of the game.

The Cheetahs had their chances, no bigger than the one created when midfielder Diphera busted through James Vambe and Roberto Phobe to setup an attacking raid deep inside the Hogs’ 22, only for Thapelo Gabothusi to spill the ball at the ruck.

 At 26-28, the game was also by no means safe, but the Hogs took a step closer to sealing the win with a crucial try from a rolling maul scrum half Pride Nyameni in the 77th minute.

Nyameni’s try was vintage performance, which was characterised by a perfect line-out win followed by a drive to the goal line and the nippy Zimbabwean international scrum half, who battled hard day long for his team was credited with the five pointer.

Nyameni bagged a quarter of Hogs points mostly from try conversions as they eased out to a nervy 35-26 winning and registered their fifth win in the league campaign.

Playing against the much physical Cheetahs did not faze the Hogs, who registered the second win against their bitter rivals this year.

Despite bagging their fifth win of the season, there would still be plenty of room for improvement for the Hogs ahead of their match against the struggling UB Rhinos. Ends