The Cheetahs again had the Leopards‘ number when they ran in a convincing 60-17 victory over their North Western neighbours in their Currie Cup match in a wet Bloemfontein on Friday night. The Leopards started and finished with a bang, but the fireworks were delivered by a slick Cheetahs side who ran the Leopards ragged in difficult conditions.

Western Province secured a 2009 Currie Cup home semifinal berth in superb fashion with an emphatic 50-7 win over neighbours the Boland Kavaliers in the Absa Currie Cup derby at a sun-drenched Newlands on Saturday afternoon. Admittedly, the Boland side never at any stage looked like posing a threat to the vastly superior Province side, but they provided the ‘soft’ sort of opposition that was ideal preparation for the Newlands-based outfit ahead of the semifinal in a fortnight’s time. Province served notice at the outset that they were there to play open rugby, and conditions at Newlands were ideal. At the end of it all, Province matched the sizzling hot weather with seven well-taken tries, against one from Boland.

The Blue Bulls moved to third place on the Currie Cup log when they beat Griquas 61-27 at Loftus on Saturday, and with the win dented their opposition’s hopes of playing in the semifinals. The Blue Bulls ran in eight tries to Griquas’ four, and were in complete control from just after midway through the first half, with Griquas getting little possession. The reality, however, is that the Blue Bulls did not look like possible Currie Cup champions except in spurts, when they were really impressive.

The Sharks were stretched all the way but killed off a determined Lions team to reach the Currie Cup playoffs after a rusty display by narrowly beating them 19-17 in the Absa Stadium on Saturday.

It took a 72nd-minute penalty from Sharks’ halfback Ruan Pienaar to finally give the lead back to the home team after it looked like the Lions would score the biggest upset of the competition.

Source + Pic: sarugby.com

Tags: blue bulls, boland kavaliers, cheetahs, griquas, leopards, lions, sharks, western province