Currie Cup Round Seven - Teams and predictions
SATURDAY PREVIEW: Strap up and brace yourself for plenty of drama as one home side and two away teams will be gunning to secure their Currie Cup play-off spots.
The action starts in Cape Town for the local derby between strugglers Western Province and the Boland Cavaliers.
The visitors made a stunning comeback to the Currie Cup after a nine-year absence and surprised friend and foe with their never-say-die attitude and ball-in-hand approach style of play.
The hosts, however, won’t make life easy for the Cavaliers as they’ve drafted a host of United Rugby Championship players in for this clash.
Western Province head coach Labeeb Levy, however, rubbished any notion that it’s a URC warm-up match regarding their selection and that they’ll respect the contest for what it is.
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“People will say it’s a URC team with all these Stormers players.
“But there are many we opted not to select. There’s no Warrick [Gelant], Ali Vermaak or Ben-Jason Dixon.
“There are still a few more we could’ve selected, and next week we have another warm-up clash [against the Sharks].
“It’s a match before it’s deemed as a warm-up clash.
“We could’ve gone into this match with the mindset of ‘it’s just a friendly’ where we can pace ourselves.
“But it will be tough for us, so we will have to get the players [in the right mindset].
“We told them last week that it’s not a warm-up match, it’s a match where they’re representing Western Province, and they should treat it and respect it as such with our neighbours being in town.”
Boland has received a forward boost with lock and regular captain Marlyn Williams being declared fit and available for selection.
Ashlon Davids has not recovered in time for Saturday’s fixture, while fullback James Tedder has sustained a minor knee injury and will not be considered for selection this week.
Jayden Bantom has been brought into the squad as cover for Tedder.
Boland assistant coach Alshaun Bock provided an update on their preparations for the season-defining match.
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“Preparations went well this week. The whole squad is looking forward to the clash against Western Province. They’re looking sharp and ready,” Bock said.
“Losing Ashlon [Davids] for last week’s clash against the Sharks was a big loss, but I feel that Mossie [Juan Mostert] did well to fill the No.10 spot.
“We’re not changing anything for the match against Western Province.
“We’re only looking at ourselves and what we can control.
“The one thing I can say is that the guys are looking forward to this clash.”
Next up in Johannesburg, the Lions host the table-topping Griquas at Ellis Park in a clash which could see the hosts leapfrog the Kimberley-based side to the top of the standings should Boland lose to Western Province and the hosts deny Griquas any points.
Griquas head coach Pieter Bergh said that they will stick to their approach throughout the season and not worry about permutations heading into this crucial fixture.
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“Our viewpoint this whole week hasn’t changed from what it has been throughout the tournament.
“That was to focus on ourselves and ensure we deliver a good performance, and that we just focus on this game.
“There is a possibility at kick-off that we can be fourth [on the table], but if results go our way, we could already be in a position for a home semifinal.
“There are a lot of things that can still happen. The biggest thing is that we just focus on the match and not worry about the different permutations, and lose energy by worrying about other games.
“This whole season, we worried about ourselves. Our focus went into ourselves and what we want to do on the field, and we need to ensure that we have the same [mindset] this week.”
The final clash in Pretoria sees the Bulls face the Cheetahs, which is a make-or-break contest for Frans Steyn’s side.
The Cheetahs, who are coming off a heavy 10-40 home loss to Griquas, will hope that the Sharks will do them a favour on Friday evening against the Pumas.
Nothing less than a bonus point win for the Cheetahs will be enough to stay in the running, depending on what happens in Durban.
Cheetahs Director of Rugby Frans Steyn said that his side owes themselves and their supporters a good performance and that he’s confident that the team can get the win over a Bulls side littered with URC players.
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“We must control what we can, and that’s pitching up on Saturday.
“Hopefully, we can do that and put up a good performance.
“We haven’t done a full 80 [minutes] in a while, as Pieter Bergh said after they played [against] us.
“It feels to me that we owe our supporters and everybody a good performance.”
Steyn added: “They [Bulls] told me two weeks ago that they’re going to smash us with their URC team, so it’s going to be tough.
“But I have confidence in the team we have. They’re awesome players and don’t think we’ve even scratched the surface with them.
“I’ve got confidence in our players that we can do an amazing job at Loftus [Versfeld] and hopefully we can play well and make our fans proud.”
The Bulls, who selected a host of URC players, will hope to finish on a high and record their third win of the competition.
Head coach Johann Ackermann explained the reasoning for selecting players from the URC side, but said it wasn’t ideally what they would’ve wanted to do.
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“We started to introduce some players that hadn’t played for the last couple of weeks and that we’ve worked with on the side.
“Ultimately, it’s not ideal. I would’ve loved to have played a [warm-up] game like a [20-minute] chukkas.
“We couldn’t get a [pre-season] game going. We tried hard, and now we only have the Cheetah game left.
“Personally, it’s just to see where we are at from a conditioning point of view.
“When you play a warm-up game, you ensure no one plays longer than 50 or 60 minutes, and suddenly we have now to get seven or eight guys through 80 minutes, which is a great indication for us.”
Western Province v Boland Cavaliers
(Cape Town Stadium, Green Point – Kick-off: 14.45; 12.45 GMT)
Prediction:
@rugby365com: Western Province by 10 points
Teams:
Western Province: 15 Luke Burger, 14 Seabelo Senatla, 13 Ruhan Nel, 12 Jonathan Roche, 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Jean-Luc du Plessis, 9 Stefan Ungerer, 8 Evan Roos, 7 Marcel Theunissen, 6 Deon Fourie (captain), 5 Ruben van Heerden, 4 JD Schickerling, 3 Zachary Porthen, 2 JJ Kotze, 1 Vernon Matongo.
Replacements: 16 Lukhanyo Vokozela, 17 Oliver Reid, 18 Cabous Eloff, 19 Adre Smith, 20 Connor Evans, 21 Dewaldt Duvenage, 22 Jurie Matthee, 23 Wandisile Simelane.
Boland: 15 Domenic Smit, 14 Donavan Don, 13 David Brits, 12 Lunathi Nxele, 11 Xavier Mitchell, 10 Juan Mostert, 9 Chriswill September, 8 Thurlow Marsh (captain), 7 Sibusiso Sangweni, 6 Sauliegh Arendse, 5 Marlyn Williams, 4 Michael Benadie, 3 Dayan van der Westhuizen, 2 Sidney Tobias, 1 Wayrin Losper
Replacements: 16 Llewellyn Classen, 17 Lamla Nunu, 18 Mthokozisi Gumede, 19 Ameer Hendricks, 20 Jurie van Vuuren, 21 Louis Schreuder, 22 Erik Lambrecht, 23 Jayden Bantom
Referee: Morne Ferreira
Assistant referees: Sean Muller, Zoe Naude
TMO: Egon Seconds
Lions v Griquas
(Ellis Park, Johannesburg – Kick-off: 17.00; 15.00 GMT)
Prediction:
@rugby365com: Lions by 14 points
Teams:
Lions: 15 Quan Horn, 14 Kelly Mpeku, 13 Henco van Wyk, 12 Richard Kriel, 11 Angelo Davids, 10 Chris Smith, 9 Nico Steyn, 8 WJ Steenkamp, 7 Ruan Venter, 6 Jarod Cairns, 5 Ruan Delport, 4 Dylan Sjoblom, 3 RF Schoeman, 2 PJ Botha (captain), 1 SJ Kotze.
Replacements: 16 Franco Marais, 17 Juan Schoeman, 18 Sebastian Lombard, 19 Darrien Landsberg, 20 Renzo du Plessis, 21 Haashim Pead, 22 Lubabalo Dobela, 23 Rynhardt Jonkeer.
Griquas: 15 Connor Mahoney, 14 Dylan Maart, 13 Zane Bester, 12 Mnombo Zwelenedaba, 11 Gurswin Wehr, 10 George Whitehead, 9 Caleb Abrahams, 8 Gustav Erlank, 7 Carl Els, 6 Lourens Oosthuizen, 5 Albert Liebenberg, 4 Malembe Mpofu, 2 Cebo Dlamini (captain), 2 Janco Uys, 1 Eddie Davids.
Replacements: 16 Gustav du Rand, 17 Leon Lyons, 18 Johan Louw, 19 Derik Pretorius, 20 Marco de Witt, 21 Thomas Bursey, 22 Tom Nel, Cameron Hufke.
Referee: Cwengile Jadezweni
Assistant referees: AJ Jacobs, Phumzile Mbewu
TMO: Stephan Geldenhuys
Bulls v Cheetahs
(Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria – Kick-off: 19.05; 17.05 GMT)
Prediction:
@rugby365com: Bulls by 12 points
Teams:
Bulls: 15 Devon Williams, 14 Cheswill Jooste, 13 David Kriel, 12 Jan Serfontein, 11 Alfonso Isaacs, 10 Keagan Johannes, 9 Embrose Papier,8 Abri van der Westhuizen, 7 Mpilo Gumede, 6 Marcell Coetzee (captain), 5 JF van Heerden, 4 Jaco Grobbelaar, 3 Mornay Smith, 2 Johan Grobbelaar, 1 Alu Tshekwani
Replacements: 16 Juann Else,17 Ruan Swart, 18 Francois Klopper,19 Cobus Wiese, 20 Nama Xaba, 21 Paul de Wet,22 Harold Vorster, 23 Stedman Gans.
Cheetahs: 15 Clayton Blommetjies, 14 Prince Nkabinde, 13 Marco Janse van Vuren, 12 Carel-Jan Coetzee, 11 Cohen Jasper, 10 Franco Smith, 9 Jandre Nel, 8 Neels Volschenk, 7 Pierre-Raymond Uys, 6 Gideon van der Merwe, 5 Victor Sekekete (captain), 4 Juan Venter, 3 Frankie Dos Reis, 2 Marko Jansen van Rensburg, 1 Cameron Dawson.
Replacements: 16 Vernon Paulo, 17 Tielman Niewoudt , 18 John-Kelly Okonkwo, 19 Sisonke Vumazonke, 20 Daniel Maartens, 21 Raegan Oranje, 22 Banie Britz, 23 Michael Annies.
Referee: Hanru van Rooyen
Assistant referees: Christopher Allison, Paul Mente
TMO: Ben Crouse
