Currie Cup roundup: It’s wide open with three pool rounds remaining

Springbok and Cheetahs scrumhalf Faf de Klerk in action during their Currie Cup match against the Stormers at the Athlone Stadium in Cape Town on Sunday. Picture: Shaun Roy/Gallo Images The Currie Cup is wide open and heading for a thrilling finish to the pool phase of the competition with seven of the eight teams in the running for the semifinals, after four rounds of action. Only three rounds remain before the knockouts, and the Griquas and Cheetahs are the current pace setters, sitting top of the log on 16 points, with the side from Kimberly ahead thanks to a superior points difference.

The Lions follow in third on 12 points, level with the fourth placed Pumas, while the Boland Cavaliers and Stormers are fifth and sixth on 11 points, followed by the Sharks in seventh on 10. Although not mathematically out of it, the Bulls are likely out of the running as they sit bottom of the log on three points and would need to win all of their next three pool games and hope other results went their way to stand an unlikely chance. An exciting fourth weekend of action took place over the past weekend, with the highlight results being the Griquas’ impressive 31-19 home win over the Lions on Saturday, and the Cheetahs’comeback 31-26 triumphover the Stormers in Cape Town on Sunday.

Inthe match in Kimberlythe Lions produced a poor performance and were never really in the hunt, after the Griquas got off to a quick start and never really looked back. They scored two early unconverted tries and slotted a penalty to take 13-0 lead, although the Lions hit back to make it 13-7 at halftime. However, that was as good as it got for the visitors as the hosts moved into a 28-7 lead, before the Lions managed two tries in the last quarter, the last one after the fulltime hooter, but by then a George Whitehead drop goal had already put the Griquas out of reach.

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For the Cheetahs they were incredibly lucky to win, after hanging on against a largely dominant Stormers team before stealing the win at the death. The Stormers took the lead in the 10thminute, and stayed ahead until the 68thwhen the Cheetahs hit the front for the first time, only for the hosts to level the scores with five minutes to go, which set the stage for double World Cup winning Springbok scrumhalf Faf de Klerk to snatch the win with a try after the hooter. The other two matches on the weekend saw the Pumashold off a fightbackfrom the Bulls to win 33-31 at Loftus having led 19-7 at halftime, as goal kicking proved the distance, while the Sharks clinched a deserved 19-12 win over the Cavaliers in Durban.

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