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Pretoria - The battle for second place on the Currie Cup log and the prized home semi-final could be settled in the penultimate round of the league phase of the competition.
Little separates the second-placed Blue Bulls and Western Province in third with both sides equal on 29-log points and a slightly superior points difference giving the Pretoria side the edge.
The Bulls only have three more match points to their Cape Town counterparts but have a more favourable draw in the two remaining matches before the playoffs.
Western Province take on the unbeaten Golden Lions in Johannesburg while the Bulls host the EP Kings with only two victories from eight matches.
Blue Bulls coach Nollis Marais says his charges still have their fate in their own hands as long as they came out on top in their two remaining matches.
“We need to win the next two games to ensure we run our own race and not worry about what the other teams are doing,” Marais said.
“After the Kings match we still need to play the Pumas away which is a difficult team to beat there.
“We need to make sure we win this weekend and see what happens from there.”
Marais feels the Kings are a much tougher prospect than their seventh place on the log may suggest and expects an uphill battle in the set-piece.
“If you look at the Kings they only had one bad match and that was the first match they played against the Lions,” he said.
“From there on it was close, so they are a very difficult side, they are well coached side, they will be very difficult to beat this weekend.”
Teams:
Blue Bulls:
15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Travis Ismaiel, 13 Dries Swanepoel, 12 Burger Odendaal, 11 Jamba Ulengo, 10 Tian Schoeman, 9 Francois Hougaard, 8 Arno Botha, 7 Lappies Labuschagne (captain), 6 Deon Stegmann, 5 RG Snyman, 4 Jacques du Plessis, 3 Marcel van der Merwe, 2 Bandise Maku, 1 Pierre Schoeman
Substitutes: 16 Corniel Els, 17 Werner Kruger, 18 Marvin Orie, 19 Ruan Steenkamp, 20 Ivan van Zyl, 21 Louis Fouché, 22 William Small Smith
Eastern Province Kings:
15 Scott van Breda, 14 Sylvian Mahuza, 13 JP du Plessis, 12 Tim Whitehead (captain), 11 Luther Obi, 10 Elgar Watts, 9 Enrico Acker, 8 Jacques Engelbrecht, 7 Stefan Willemse, 6 Thembelani Bholi, 5 Cornell Hess, 4 Steven Sykes, 3 Tom Botha, 2 Martin Ferreira, 1 Lizo Gqoboka
Substitutes: 16 Edgar Marutlulle, 17 Schalk Ferreira, 18 Simon Kerrod, 19 Paul Schoeman, 20 Tim Agaba, 21 Dwayne Kelly, 22 Karlo Aspeling
