The Border Rugby Union will have to make a big decision over the Bulldogs’ head coach position in the coming months: whether to re-sign Dumisani Mhani or get new personnel.
Mhani’s contract recently expired, leaving the provincial mentorship job vacant.
He confirmed to the Daily Dispatch on Saturday that he was uncertain about his future.
“I will wait for leadership to hear what the way forward is in the coming weeks, whether they will retain me, because my contract has ended,” he said.
The decision over the Bulldogs’ job is likely to be made after the union’s elections next month.
Mhani had a season to forget with the Bullodgs. He didn’t register a single win in the two major competitions, the Currie Cup First Division and the SA Cup.
That relates to 14 defeats in 14 matches.
Mhani admitted the season was dismal.
“We had quite a bad season. There were a lot of challenges, but cowboys don’t cry. We can’t be complaining about that. Every team has its challenges; we had to make life work.
“Whoever takes the team forward needs to be backed, and the team has to have a proper off-season.
“We can’t have what happened this season where we just played without a proper off-season; remember, there are two competitions that the team play in: the SA Cup and the Currie Cup.
“You have to be well prepared and properly seasoned to be able to do well in those competitions because you face big teams,” he said.
Potentially in his last game for Border, Mhani was left frustrated over the weekend as his team were kicking themselves after losing 17-14 to the Leopards in a Currie Cup First Division game that they dominated for large parts at the Sisa Dukashe Stadium in Mdantsane on Saturday.
Border showed improvement in set pieces, the go-forward and in defence in a game which came after the KuGompo City-based team had suffered back-to-back 80-plus-point defeats.
The score was 17-7 at halftime on a chilly afternoon in Mdantsane.
Bulldogs winger Lonwabo Rawana scored the seven-pointer for the home side.
In the second half the Bulldogs controlled the tempo.
Winger Sakhe Dingile made use of that momentum and extended Border’s try tally, making the score 17-14 with 30 minutes remaining.
Border kept on pounding the Leopards’ defence but couldn’t get the ball over the line.
They had numerous opportunities inside the Leopards’ 22m area but were let down by handling errors.
They also had chances to kick for poles to level the score but kept opting for the driving maul, which the Leopards managed to disrupt.
“The game was ours to win, but decision-making let us down. We had a lot of chances to kill the game, especially in the second half, but we made a lot of errors which cost us,“ Mhani said.
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