News
Currie Cup set for last day drama
September 29 2008
With just one round of the Currie Cup remaining, three teams are still vying for the last two play-off berths with Saturday's clash between the Lions and Western Province in Cape Town set to be a virtual quarter-final.
The Blue Bulls and Sharks have already secured home semi-finals meaning one of the Free State Cheetahs, the Lions and Western Province will miss out on the play-offs in a fortnight's time.
The Free State Cheetahs need a bonus point win over the Boland Kavaliers in Bloemfontein to be sure of their place. It will then be left to WP and the Lions to scrap it out at Newlands in Cape Town for the final place.
The Lions will go through if they take a bonus point or lose by 18 points or fewer. WP will join the last four if they score four tries in winning by 19 points or more and deny the Lions a bonus point.
The Sharks won the 'match of the weekend' against the Lions by 34-20, but the most talked-about result saw Western Province fail to pick up a bonus point in their 23-7 win over neighbours, the Boland Cavaliers.
The rampant Bulls, meanwhile, beat Griquas 58-22 in Kimberley on Friday afternoon, whilst the Free State Cheetahs did their semi-final hopes no harm with a crushing 78-7 win over the Falcons at Bosman Stadium on Friday.
The Bulls will however not be happy with the news that Springbok wing Akona Ndungane and Rayno Gerber might be ruled out of the rest of the season after picking up injuries.
Whilst WP will be ruing their inability to claim that all-important four-try bonus point - they scored just three tries against Boland - the Lions missed out on a crucial bonus point themselves against the Sharks. The Lions, who led 8-3 at half-time, could have secured a semi-final place had they claimed just that one losing bonus point.
Lions head coach Eugene Eloff was understandably a disappointed man at Ellis Park on Saturday.
"The Sharks capitalised on our mistakes. We made three crucial mistakes: 21 points. That was the difference between winning and losing," said Eloff.
Despite their bright start, the Lions had no reply to the Sharks' superior second-half display, with the Durbanites racking up four tries - two to World Cup-winning winger JP Pietersen - as they recorded their 11th victory of the Currie Cup season.
Powerhouse flanker Jean Deysel, another one of the Sharks' tryscorers on the day said the Sharks mindset made the difference.
"We're glad about the result; we knew it wouldn't be easy. We were playing to secure top spot, the Lions were playing for a semi-final place - our mindset before the match was all about the job at hand," he told the SA Rugby website .
Despite being down at half-time, Deysel - August's Currie Cup Player of the Month - revealed that there was no sign of panic in the Sharks dressing-room.
"We had been making some good runs in the first half, but our finishing let us down, so we simply spoke about doing the basics right in the second half," he said. "(But) it does help that our team spirit is so good, as we always believed and knew we could win the match."
Currie Cup Standings:
1 Sharks 52
2 Blue Bulls 49
3 Lions 41
4 Cheetahs 37
5 Western Province 36
6 Griquas 19
7 Kavaliers 13
8 Falcons 13
Top points-scorers:
167 - Morne Steyn (Blue Bulls)
164 - Earl Rose (Lions)
Top try-scorers:
8 - MJ Mentz (Griquas)
7 - Jacques Botes (Sharks)