Currie Cup Rugby Round 3 Review

Currie Cup Rugby Round 3 presented us with some rather interesting results and some young talents announced themselves to the South African rugby public.

EP Kings 13 – Tries: Lizo Gqoboka; Conversion: Scott van Breda; Penalties: Scott van Breda (2)
Steval Pumas 15 – Penalties: JC Roos (5)

In recent years, Currie Cup matches between the Kings and the Pumas have proven to be tight affairs and this weekend’s game in Port Elizabeth was no different.

The Kings would have targeted this match as a must win game and with a bit more maturity and a better kicking game at flyhalf they could have pulled it off. They are sorely missing the maturity and nouse of their two injured flyhalves, Elgar Watts and Gary van Aswegen. They were also unfortunate to have lost regular captain Luke Watson the day before the match and his regular injuries are becoming a frustration for the PE faithful.

The Pumas are a well drilled outfit and held on throughout the match to make the final score to win the game, a JC Roos penalty. The Kings appear to be closing the gap to their more established competitors, but the lack of sponsorship is sending out warning signals for their imminent reintroduction to Super Rugby.

ORC Griquas 9: Penalties:Ntabeni Dukisa (3)
Toyota Free State Cheetahs 31: Tries: Rayno Benjamin, Fred Zeilinga, Sergeal Petersen, Gerhard Olivier. Conversions: Zeilinga (4). Penalties: Zeilinga

The Cheetahs left Kimberley with a full house of 5 points, but Head Coach Franco Smith will be pulling his hair out when he reflects on how many tries were butchered due to their poor handling. Fred Zeilinga put in a mercurial display at flyhalf and created a number of opportunities, only to have his outside backs squander those chances.

Smith will also have to consider the poor defensive effort put in by Sergeal Pietersen. For all of his attacking intent, he was simply bumped off in tackles and this will be exposed in tighter games against better opposition.

For the Griquas, it was more of the same. A fast start, followed by little else in terms of creative play that presented too much difficulty for the Cheetahs to deal with. They did manage to put a lot of pressure on the Cheetahs scrum at times though.

Cell C Sharks 16 – Try: Odwa Ndungane; Conversion: Joe Pietersen; Penalties: Pietersen (3).
Xerox Golden Lions 31 – Tries: Howard Mnisi, Stokkies Hanekom, Courtnall Skosan, Anthony Volmink; Conversions: Marnitz Boshoff (4); Penalty: Boshoff.

The Lions kept their unbeaten record intact by beating an improved Sharks team in Durban. Both sides were at each other’s throats for the first 60 minutes of the match and it was once again the Lions superior fitness that helped them close the game out. Any side looking to beat the Lions this season will have to be able to stick with them in the last 20.

As has been the case in many games this season the Lions did not have a big lead going into the final quarter and were in fact behind by one point against the Sharks. Sixteen unanswered points before the final whistle underlined the fact that this Lions team knows how to close out games. The Lions will keep a keen eye on skipper Jaco Kriel’s calf injury before next week’s game against the Pumas in Nelspruit.

The Sharks have shown signs of improvement and handing a start to Michael Claasens at scrumhalf seemed to light the backline up. Their scrum will be a source of worry though, as the Lions put them under significant pressure, forcing coach Gary Gold to make tactical replacements in the front row before half time.

Vodacom Blue Bulls 47 : Tries: Jamba Ulengo (2), Burger Odendaal, Travis Ismaiel and Warrick Gelant; Conversions: Tian Schoeman (2); Penalties: Schoeman (5), Louis Fouché

DHL Western Province 29: Tries: Seabelo Senatla, Dillon Leyds; Conversions: Demetri Catrakilis (2); Penalties: Catrakilis (5)

This traditional North versus South clash is always scripted as a game of forward power taking on attacking intent. In this weekend’s clash, the script writers seem to have swopped the roles around, with Western Province forward power smashing the Bulls scrum, but eventually being overcome by a Bulls backline that ran rings around their backline.

Both sides came into this game unbeating in 2015 and the Bulls will take great pride in beating the current Currie Cup champions. The facts have not changed from last weekend. If the Bulls have any designs on winning the tournament, they will have to address their scrum weaknesses. To be frank, they were monstered in the scrums and 100 game veteran Werner Kruger was in significant trouble at tighthead.

The Western Province brains trust will have left Pretoria with more questions than answers. For the defending champions to have only just escaped leaking 50 points would have come as a major shock to them. Their two tries came via a clearance kick that was charged down and an intercept try. The Bulls literally ran them off their feet in the last twenty minutes, with their bigger and stronger backs exposing some defensive frailties.

I am certainly enjoying this Currie Cup season. There have been tight results as well as runaway victories, but it is the emergence of new faces and new patterns of play that makes me excited for the future of South African rugby.

Below is the Currie Cup log after week three of the competition.

 
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