The Airlink Pumas turned in a strong second half to satisfy their coach Jimmy Stonehouse in Cape Town but it is Suzuki Griquas who are arguably emerging as the team to beat as the Carling Currie Cup heads towards the playoff stage.
Griquas would have travelled the 180 kilometres from Kimberley on the N6 to their Central Union derby in Bloemfontein on Friday as underdogs but they looked anything like that as they took the game by the scruff from the off and then just never let up.
The Toyota Free State Cheetahs celebrated a late consolation try as if they’d won the game but in truth they were well beaten by a team that made the statement of the penultimate round.
The Griquas rout saw them go to the top of the log with a potentially difficult final game against a ADT Fidelity Lions team that is starting to load up with URC players, while the Sanlam Boland Kavaliers lost some ground when they lost a late Siya Masuku pressure penalty in a thrilling game against the Hollywoodbets Sharks XV in Pietermaritzburg.
The Sharks win was their second on the bounce and in upsetting the team that has been so much talked about in this year’s competition, Nick Hatton and his men confirmed the progress that has been made by the young team since the widespread overreaction that followed their 64-0 loss to the Vodacom Blue Bulls in the second round of the competition.
Indeed, what has happened to the Bulls since they saw sense and started to use the competition as a development opportunity, although they do seem to still have several players who hardly need developing, has brought some much needed perspective.
The Lions, as the fist pumping in the coaching box during their big win over the Bulls in Johannesburg indicated, appear desperate for a trophy, but for the other three unions aligned to the Vodacom URC that competition takes priority and for them a measure of progress over the single round domestic competition will be a win.
In that sense the Sharks are probably the team of the bottom three, the others being the Bulls and DHL Western Province, who have the most to feel pleased about.
Some newcomers have made good progress, not the least of them the impressive young flyhalf Jean Smith, who kicked all his team’s points before Masuku came on to slot the winner in front of a large crowd that got its money’s worth at the Woodburn Stadium.
If you watched just the first half of the game in Cape Town, and ignored the large number of handling errors and turnovers conceded that sounded a warning of what was to come, you’d have thought that WP have made some progress too.
Unfortunately for them their inability to capitalise on their dominant first 40 minutes came back to bite them in the second half and the Pumas banked the points that kept them in contention for a semifinal spot.
The number of teams that can make the playoffs has been whittled to five, with the Pumas in fifth place, one point behind the Lions and Cheetahs, with Friday night’s game against the Sharks in Durban to come.
With so much to play for, and four teams in with a chance to top the log, there is much to play for on the final weekend of league play, with the Pumas needing to win in Durban and the Cheetahs needing to bounce back when they go to Pretoria for the final game of the regular season to ensure they will be in action when the competition is whittled down to four remaining teams the following week.
Weekend Carling Currie Cup results
Toyota Free State Cheetahs 10 Suzuki Griquas 40
ADT Fidelity Lions 44 Vodacom Blue Bulls 5
Hollywoodbets Sharks XV 33 Sanlam Boland Kavaliers 31
DHL Western Province 13 Airlink Pumas 39
Final round fixtures
Hollywoodbets Sharks XV v Airlink Pumas (Durban, Friday 7pm)
DHL Western Province v Sanlam Boland Kavaliers (Cape Town, Saturday 2:45pm)
ADT Fidelity Lions v Suzuki Griquas (Johannesburg, Saturday 5pm)
Vodacom Blue Bulls v Toyota Free State Cheetahs (Pretoria, Saturday 7:05pm)
Carling Currie Cup log points after six games: 1. Suzuki Griquas 25; 2. Sanlam Boland Kavaliers 23; 3. ADT Fidelity Lions 21; 4. Toyota Free State Cheetahs 21; 5. Airlink Pumas 20; 6. Vodacom Blue Bulls 10; 7. Hollywoodbets Sharks XV 10; 8. DHL Western Province 1.