The Currie Cup, Premier Division only has one week to go in the regular rounds, before the semi-finals… and still there is all six teams in with a chance of winning the eventual title.
The results of the past weekend was quite surprising, with only the Free State Cheetahs vs Sharks match going true to form.
In the first game of the weekend, the Vodacom Blue Bulls gave DHL Western Province a bloody nose, pun intended with regards to Tyrone Holmes who had his nose broken which needs a small operation and which would keep him out for ten days. The Blue Bulls were superior by 26 / 13.
The GWK Griquas then surprized all and sundry by beating last week’s Log leaders, the MTN Golden Lions, by 37 / 21 and thus denying the Golden Lions any additional Log points.
The Sharks took on the Toyota Free State Cheetahs in Bloemfontein and eventually won by 37 / 30, giving the Free Staters a losing bonuspoint right at the death in the process.
ABSA Currie Cup Premier Division – Log
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | TF | TA | BPts | Pts |
| 1 | The Sharks | 9 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 250 | 230 | 20 | 27 | 18 | 6 | 30 |
| 2 | MTN Golden Lions | 9 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 256 | 229 | 27 | 24 | 23 | 4 | 28 |
| 3 | DHL Western Province | 9 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 236 | 211 | 25 | 23 | 17 | 4 | 20 |
| 4 | GWK Griquas | 9 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 247 | 271 | -24 | 28 | 30 | 4 | 20 |
| 5 | Toyota Free State Cheetahs | 9 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 253 | 269 | -16 | 24 | 28 | 6 | 18 |
| 6 | Vodacom Blue Bulls | 9 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 230 | 262 | -32 | 19 | 29 | 2 | 18 |
It effectively means that the bottom four of the six participating teams are all squarely on a banana peel, losing the next one will mean you are out of the top four, therefore out of the semi-finals.
This nett effect is as follows:
- WP / Free State Cheetahs – only 1 of the 2 will go through to the semis.
- Sharks / Griquas – Sharks will be determined to win, to retain their now new-found top spot on the Log, whilst a win by Griquas will see them in the semis.
- Golden Lions / Blue Bulls – the last of the games for the upcoming weekend. By the time this game kicks off the Blue Bulls will know exactly what is needed to get into the semis whereas the Golden Lions will know whether they might still be able to shoot for top spot or not.
Looking at how topsy turvey the SuperBru results have been, not only for me but for most of you out there, your guess is as good as mine, who the final four will be!
Of course, what complicates matters even more is the fact that the teams will have their Springboks back from International duty and because of the precarious nature of Log standings we can expect most teams to feature their strongest possible sides, bar maybe a couple of Springbok players struggling with injury niggles.
At this stage of the season there is a fine balance between getting Springbok players back and possibly disrupting a team’s momentum by playing these returning players.
If I had to hazard a guess, who is going through to the top 4, after this weekend’s 3 games, it would have to be as follows:
1. Sharks
2. Golden Lions
3. Western Province
4. Blue Bulls or Griquas
In other words I don’t think the Free State Cheetahs will beat WP, I also don’t think Griquas will beat the Sharks but the Blue Bulls have a realistic 50 / 50 chance of beating the Lions, even at the Coke-Tin.
From the semis up, anything can and will happen!
The Cheetahs are pretty fukced. WP will have their stars back and that will be the end of the road.
Go Griqua’s!
Wow. Dit voel asof die Bulle super swak is, maar as ek na die log kyk het hulle meer wedstryde gewen as die cheetahs en net soveel gewen as Griekwas en wp. Dit voel nie so nie.
2@ Loosehead
True that. We are really buggered! The Cheetahs have really battled with injuries in this years CC. Injuries under the forwards were the most disruptive, with the pack almost changing weekly. In 9 matches the Cheetahs have used 22 forwards.
Coenie Oosthuizen, Adriaans Strauss, Trevor Nyakane, Frans Viljoen, Heinrich Brüssow, Kabamba Floors, Hendro Scholtz, Phillip vd Walt, Schalk van der Merwe and Boom Prinsloo were all injured at some stage. Players that had to be drawn in, were Ross Geldenhuys, AJ le Roux, and Brummer Badenhorst. No doubt this also contributed to the lack of penetration on attack.
In the backline, we lost Goosen, Smit and van Zyl early in the tournament.
2 @ Loosehead,
Add Andries Ferreira to the injury list. So we were basically without 7 of our definate starting pack for most of the season.
Coenie, Strauss, Nyakane, Ferreira, Brüssow, Frans Viljoen, vd Walt all missed the bulk of the matches.
Our second choice players that went out injured Floors, Scholtz, Boom Prinsloo, all loosies!
It’s up to WP to secure their 3rd place, we have suffered this year with an obviousl lack of class beyond the first team players. The youngsters need to develop some more still.
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