Defending Carling Currie Cup champions, the Suzuki Griquas, all but secured a home semifinal after they impressively powered past the Airlink Pumas 38-14 in their penultimate pool clash at the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit on Friday afternoon.
The result moves the Griquas clear at the top of the log on 26 points, and arguably makes sure of a home semifinal place, unless some strange results happen over the rest of the weekend and in next weekend’s final pool round.
The Toyota Cheetahs, on 21 points, are in second, and the Sanlam Boland Cavaliers, in fourth, have 16 points, and are the only teams that can mathematically catch the Griquas, but they play each other on Sunday, and anything but a bonus-point win for Boland will confirm the Griquas a home knockout.
The Griquas extend their spot at the top of the #CurrieCup and secure a home semi-final 👏🏉#SSRugby pic.twitter.com/UQDMifjyfT
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) August 21, 2026
It was a great start for the Griquas with an early try in the fourth minute. As they attacked off the back of a scrum in midfield, outside centre Zane Bester hit a gap, stepped the last defender and sprinted away for the converted score.
It then went from bad to worse for the Pumas as flank Ruwald van der Merwe was yellow-carded for head contact in a tackle, before conceding their second try.
The Griquas kicked the resultant penalty to the corner, secured the lineout, set up the maul and rumbled over for hooker Tiaan Lange to dot down the seven-pointer, putting them into a 14-0 lead after 12 minutes.
MONSTER MAULS
A 20-minute arm wrestle followed before the match burst to life going into the halftime break.
First, the Griquas extended their lead in the 34th minute from another lineout in the Pumas 22m, which saw loose forward Lourens Oosthuizen break off and power through several players to score, with flyhalf George Whitehead slotting his third conversion.
The Pumas finally hit back three minutes later, after a monster maul of their own was stopped in the Griquas' 22m, with them attacking and getting close before the ball popped out to replacement flyhalf Clinton Swart, and he brushed aside Whitehead to go over under the posts.
But the Griquas had the final say on the hooter as Whitehead popped over a penalty to give them a 24-7 lead at halftime.
The second half started much like the first with an early score for the visitors. Scrumhalf Bobby Alexander took a quick tap after a penalty near the halfway and set off before slinging the ball to wing Grshwin Wehr at the 22m to run in untouched in the 45th minute.
Five minutes later, Griquas wing Dylan Maart also received 10 minutes in the sin bin after head contact in a tackle.
The Pumas initially couldn’t make the extra man count until the 58th minute, when they set a lineout deep in the Griquas 22m, saw their maul stopped short and then bashed away on the line until replacement prop Junior Banda smashed over, converted by Swart to make it 31-14.
Any hopes of the Pumas fighting their way back into the contest in the final 10 minutes were effectively ended in the 72nd minute when replacement hooker Jan-Henning Campher was yellow-carded after a dangerous shoulder-to-head cleanout, which was upped to a red card.
The Griquas added the icing to the cake with a late second score for Bester, who sliced through with a few minutes remaining for an emphatic win.
SCORERS:
Airlink Pumas: Tries - Clinton Swart, Junior Banda; Conversions - Swart (2)
Suzuki Griquas: Tries - Zane Bester (2), Tiaan Lange, Lourens Oosthuizen, Gurshwin Wehr; Conversions - George Whitehead (4), Liam Koen; Penalty - Whitehead