Currie Cup Bulletin #9

The Carling Currie Cup Premier Division reaches its halfway stage this weekend with four more intriguing matches scheduled in the fifth round, with the defending champions, the Toyota Cheetahs, hosting log leaders the Vodacom Bulls in a top-two clash in Bloemfontein on Friday (17h00).

On Saturday, the Hollywoodbets Sharks XV will attempt to build on their good performance in the previous round which saw them registering their first win of the season when they travel north to Nelspruit to face the Airlink Pumas (15h00).

The encounter in the Lowveld is followed by the meeting between DHL Western Province and NovaVit Griffons, from 17h15, at the DHL Stadium in Cape Town. The Cape side will be hoping to get back on the winning wagon after last weekend’s loss in Pretoria, while the Northern Free Staters showed their attacking potency when going down to a narrow loss in the Free State derby.

In the final match of the round, Suzuki Griquas will be eager to regain lost ground as they host the Fidelity ADT Lions in Sunday afternoon in Kimberley (15h00), with the team from Gauteng equally determined to show their defeat last week at the hands of the KwaZulu-Natalians was just a temporary hiccup.

After four rounds of action, with two matches in the groups remaining before the four single round cross-group encounters start, a clear picture is not only emerging regarding the league contenders, but also the men who are the driving force for those teams.

Airlink Pumas playmaker Clinton Swart is currently leading the overall point scoring charts with 63 points. He is followed by Ethan Wentzel of Toyota Cheetahs on 47, whom in turn is two points ahead of Sam Francis (Fidelity ADT Lions) and Jaco van der Walt, who had a blinder for the Vodacom Bulls in last weekend North-South win in Pretoria, both on 45.

The leading try scorer list is headed by Vodacom Bulls No 8 Celimpilo Gumede with five, while the duo of Swart and former Blitzbok Angelo Davids of DHL WP are joint-second with four five-pointers each.

The Carling Currie Cup Premier Division had seen a feast of attacking rugby and lots of exciting tries thus far, as evident by the number of successful conversions. Swart leads the way with 17 two-pointers of the kicking tee, Wentzel is next on 15, followed by Jurie Matthee (DHL WP, 13), Francis (11) and Van der Walt (10).

Match information:

Toyota Cheetahs vs Vodacom Bulls

Date: Friday, 2 August

Venue: Toyota Stadium, Bloemfontein

Time: 17h00

Referee: Aimee Barrett-Theron

TV: SS Rugby

Airlink Pumas vs Hollywoodbets Sharks XV

Date: Saturday, 3 August

Venue: Mbombela Stadium, Nelspruit

Time: 15h00

Referee: Sean Muller

TV: SS Rugby

DHL Western Province vs NovaVit Griffons

Date: Saturday, 3 August

Venue: DHL Stadium, Cape Town

Time: 17h15

Referee: Stephan Geldenhuys

TV: SS Rugby

Suzuki Griquas vs Fidelity ADT Lions

Date: Sunday, 4 August

Venue: Suzuki Stadium, Kimberley

Time: 15h00

Referee: Griffin Colby

TV: SS Rugby