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Gavin Rich - SuperSport
Johannesburg - The Sharks remain comfortably atop the Absa Currie Cup log as the league stage heads into its final month - but there was enough wrong with their performance in Witbank on Friday to suggest the coming matches will be a critical period for them.
The Sharks raced to a big early lead but the Pumas succeeded in slowing the game down after that, and when they did, the Durban team looked decidedly ordinary.
They scored 27 points by the 25-minute mark, and although they dominated territory and possession in the second half, they only managed to add three points once their initial purple patch had been ended.
Sharks supporters might well point out that the job had been done once their team had picked up their fourth try, but coach John Plumtree and his assistants would do well to heed the warning signals that suggest the loss of Bismarck du Plessis and Beast Mtwarira might have left the Sharks looking a little vulnerable.
We will know more on that score this coming weekend, for the Sharks get to host their long-time nemesis and hoodoo team, the Free State Cheetahs, in a match which could determine whether or not they finish top of the log.
For while the buffer is comfortable at the moment, defeat will mean the Cheetahs come back to within range, and they don’t have many tough matches to look forward to after this as by Saturday night they would already have played all the other members of the so-called top three: WP, the Bulls and the Sharks.
The Lions are in resurgent form and could prove problematic in Bloemfontein, but you would expect the Cheetahs to win at home. WP, if they build further on their confidence-boosting return to form against the Leopards, could yet prove even more of a threat to the Sharks should they build up enough momentum to beat the Blue Bulls at Loftus in their penultimate league fixture.
That could see them back in range of the Sharks with one match to come - that being a full-strength tussle at Newlands. Don’t bet too much against this match being for the top of the log position that will ensure home-ground advantage should the team that ends there get to the final.
Not that coach Allister Coetzee will be getting too excited about that prospect just yet, for WP really did no more than should have been expected of them in beating the Leopards in a nine-try rout at Newlands.
There was much talk before the match about WP’s returning Bok backline stars, but in the end Jean de Villiers, Juan de Jongh and Gio Aplon only really played a bit role as they left it to the forwards to grind out the victory.
The bulk of the WP tries came as the product of driving mauls and De Jongh and Dewaldt Duvenage were the only backs to get on the scoresheet.
The performance of the weekend came from the Cheetahs, who have now won four matches on the trot, and are starting to look ominous for the other teams. Their win over the Blue Bulls was hard fought, but since when are wins over those opponents anything but hard fought?
The result leaves the Bulls in danger of not making the top four, and, at this stage, it appears they will have a lot to play for when they host WP next month.
The Lions have a winning sequence that is even superior to that of the Cheetahs. Their good win over Griquas was their fifth in a row and they are in the top four at the expense of the Bulls.
Griquas now suddenly have some work to do if they want to maintain their challenge for a place in the playoffs, and have a tough away fixture against Province in two weeks' time in their immediate future.
Johannesburg - The Sharks remain comfortably atop the Absa Currie Cup log as the league stage heads into its final month - but there was enough wrong with their performance in Witbank on Friday to suggest the coming matches will be a critical period for them.
The Sharks raced to a big early lead but the Pumas succeeded in slowing the game down after that, and when they did, the Durban team looked decidedly ordinary.
They scored 27 points by the 25-minute mark, and although they dominated territory and possession in the second half, they only managed to add three points once their initial purple patch had been ended.
Sharks supporters might well point out that the job had been done once their team had picked up their fourth try, but coach John Plumtree and his assistants would do well to heed the warning signals that suggest the loss of Bismarck du Plessis and Beast Mtwarira might have left the Sharks looking a little vulnerable.
We will know more on that score this coming weekend, for the Sharks get to host their long-time nemesis and hoodoo team, the Free State Cheetahs, in a match which could determine whether or not they finish top of the log.
For while the buffer is comfortable at the moment, defeat will mean the Cheetahs come back to within range, and they don’t have many tough matches to look forward to after this as by Saturday night they would already have played all the other members of the so-called top three: WP, the Bulls and the Sharks.
The Lions are in resurgent form and could prove problematic in Bloemfontein, but you would expect the Cheetahs to win at home. WP, if they build further on their confidence-boosting return to form against the Leopards, could yet prove even more of a threat to the Sharks should they build up enough momentum to beat the Blue Bulls at Loftus in their penultimate league fixture.
That could see them back in range of the Sharks with one match to come - that being a full-strength tussle at Newlands. Don’t bet too much against this match being for the top of the log position that will ensure home-ground advantage should the team that ends there get to the final.
Not that coach Allister Coetzee will be getting too excited about that prospect just yet, for WP really did no more than should have been expected of them in beating the Leopards in a nine-try rout at Newlands.
There was much talk before the match about WP’s returning Bok backline stars, but in the end Jean de Villiers, Juan de Jongh and Gio Aplon only really played a bit role as they left it to the forwards to grind out the victory.
The bulk of the WP tries came as the product of driving mauls and De Jongh and Dewaldt Duvenage were the only backs to get on the scoresheet.
The performance of the weekend came from the Cheetahs, who have now won four matches on the trot, and are starting to look ominous for the other teams. Their win over the Blue Bulls was hard fought, but since when are wins over those opponents anything but hard fought?
The result leaves the Bulls in danger of not making the top four, and, at this stage, it appears they will have a lot to play for when they host WP next month.
The Lions have a winning sequence that is even superior to that of the Cheetahs. Their good win over Griquas was their fifth in a row and they are in the top four at the expense of the Bulls.
Griquas now suddenly have some work to do if they want to maintain their challenge for a place in the playoffs, and have a tough away fixture against Province in two weeks' time in their immediate future.
