Those who understand that the Carling Currie Cup exists these days primarily to give the smaller unions relevance and something meaningful to play for should have been pleased with how things went in the third round of the competition.
Watching the second string or even third, fourth or fifth string sides of the URC aligned unions (Vodacom Bulls, ADT Fidelity Lions, DHL Western Province and the Hollywoodbets Sharks XV) playing one another is a bit ho hum.
We used to call those curtain-raisers. Remember the days when for instance the WP Disas would play the Transvaal Rooibokke or Natal Duikers before the main game? It was an appetiser for the main event, but not the main event.
Maybe it is just an impression, and there could certainly be no faulting the commitment of the young Sharks who very nearly beat the Toyota Cheetahs, but it does appear that there’s a smidgen of extra passion that comes with knowing you are representing your province’s top team, and that was writ large in Pretoria, Kimberley and Wellington at the weekend.
GRIQUAS MAKE IT SEVEN IN A ROW AGAINST WP
The result in Kimberley on Friday afternoon wasn’t unexpected. When Suzuki Griquas put a young WP team to the sword it was their seventh win on the bounce against those opponents.
Perhaps Griquas put in an extra effort against the blue and white hoops due to a twinning agreement between the two unions, but Griquas looked equally inspired against the Sanlam Boland Kavaliers five days before that.
Yes, adding to the Griquas achievement of two good back to back home wins was the short turnaround - they played Boland on the Sunday, and what a thriller that was, and then five days later they had a Friday game against Province.
And cooked in both games, thus sending out the message that once again Kimberley is going to be a tough place to travel to in this edition of the Currie Cup.
Not that there are that many more home games for them to look forward to, for this is a shortened competition, played over only one round. Something that no doubt ratchets up the desperation levels, as it did for the Airlink Pumas when they travelled to Pretoria on Saturday.
The Pumas have scored some good wins over the Bulls in the recent past, and some by quite a comfortable margin. But given how strong the Bulls were looking before they hosted their neighbours from down the N4 no-one would have seen the one-sidedness of the Loftus battle coming.
The Pumas, the reigning SA Cup champions, showed exactly why they have that status as they outplayed a Bulls team that has several experienced players, who in some cases might be described as journeymen, playing for them.
The win meant the Pumas have bounced back from their away defeat to the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein the previous week and their challenge for a place in the semifinals is up and running.
ANOTHER VIBRANT SUNDAY IN WELLINGTON
As is that of the Kavaliers and Cheetahs, with the former making another massive statement, as did their fans in another vibrant Sunday atmosphere in Wellington, by inflicting a first defeat of the season on the Lions.
There’s context of course - both the Lions’ good wins before this were against inexperienced WP and Sharks team and were at Emirates Airlines Park.
Traveling to Wellington on what was a lovely clear winter’s afternoon but with heavy underfoot conditions because of the rain in the day building up to the game is a very different proposition to the highveld. But it was the determination and passion that Boland took onto the field with them that stood out, and their refusal to give an inch.
The Lions had to work really hard for their tries, while Boland even in the heavier conditions still showed their ability to find space and attack that space. They do have a mounting injury toll, with their ace try scorer Donovan Don now on the crocked list after a ball in the air incident that appeared to injure his knee, but they have back up, as shown by Juan Mostert, the man who came on as Don’s replacement.
By following up their close win over the Cheetahs in the first round with such an emphatic win over a rated team the hosts sent out an unambiguous warning to all future visitors to their home ground in Wellington.
The Sharks weren’t on their usual home ground of Hollywoodbets Kings Park but instead hosted the Cheetahs at the Sugar Ray Xulu Stadium in Clermont, where the fans saw a lot of guts from their team but still no result.
The Cheetahs did have the most of the game and deserved to win the low scoring clash but the Sharks do deserve kudos for their outstanding defensive effort. The Cheetahs could easily have been out of sight by halftime but in the end they had to fight it out to the end before securing their four log points.
WEEKEND CARLING CURRIE CUP RESULTS (round three)
Suzuki Griquas 47 DHL Western Province 17
Vodacom Blue Bulls 7 Airlink Pumas 41
Hollywoodbets Sharks XV 5 Toyota Cheetahs 7
Boland Kavaliers 29 ADT Fidelity Lions 10