The Sanlam Boland Kavaliers have been the talking point of the early rounds of the Carling Currie Cup, but they face arguably their biggest home test yet when they host the Vodacom Bulls in Wellington on Sunday.
All three of the Boland games so far have been played on a Sunday and they have been providers of riveting Sunday entertainment, with their narrow loss in a high scoring game in Kimberley two weeks ago being counterbalanced by two excellent home wins against the Toyota Cheetahs and then the ADT Fidelity Lions.
Both the teams they have beaten ranked among the contenders for ultimate Currie Cup silverware, and Sunday’s visitors do too. Only after they lost to the Airlink Pumas at home last week, the Bulls should be in a determined mood.
It is understood that the penny has dropped for the Pretoria union when it comes to mixing URC players with domestic competition players, so there could be a very youthful look to the Bulls team. But is there such a thing as a weak Bulls team given the depth that has been built over the past few seasons?
For Boland the carrot is a hat-trick of wins against rated opposition on their home field and after last week’s win over the Lions there should again be a big turnout on what should be another clear Cape winter’s afternoon but with rain predicted for Saturday there could again be the heavy underfoot conditions that might have stymied the Lions last week.
The Lions will be looking to get back on track after that defeat when they travel to Nelspruit to face a Pumas team on Saturday afternoon that will be in a confident mood after their comprehensive win over their northern neighbours last weekend.
This game is not being played at the Mbombela Stadium but at the Nelspruit Rugby Club, and like the Cheetahs game against DHL Western Province in Bloemfontein it will kick off at 2pm to give fans a chance to watch the Springboks v Wallaby test match later in the day.
The weekend rugby fare gets underway on Friday afternoon, once again in Kimberley, where last week the Suzuki Griquas were easy winners against WP. This time their opponents are the Hollywoodbets Sharks XV but a similar result should be expected and that would give Griquas a hat-trick of home wins. They beat Boland the Sunday before last.
This is likely to be a weekend that would in cricketing parlance be described as a moving day (if it was a test match) and it is likely that any faint glimmer of hope harboured by the struggling coastal teams will have been extinguished by the end of it.
CARLING CURRIE CUP FIXTURES (Round Four)
Suzuki Griquas v Hollywoodbets Sharks XV (Kimberley, Friday 3pm)
Airlink Pumas v Fidelity ADT Lions (Nelspruit, Saturday 2pm)
Toyota Cheetahs v DHL Western Province (Bloemfontein, Saturday 2pm)
Sanlam Boland Kavaliers v Vodacom Bulls (Wellington, Sunday 3pm)