Danger signs at Loftus as Griquas dare to dream

It took a massive momentum shift on Saturday night for the Currie Cup to really move into overdrive as outsiders and SuperSport Challenge champs Tafel Lager Griquas dared to dream while the danger signs are now firmly flashing at Loftus Versfeld.

It isn’t surprising that Vodacom Blue Bulls coach Pote Human called his side’s performance in their 37-15 home loss to the Kimberley side “a disgrace” and Human, to his credit, didn’t try and hide behind the performance as the Bulls produced one of their worst outings at Loftus Versfeld in the last decade.

The Saturday night performance leaves them in a precarious position last on the log and now in real danger of having to play promotion-relegation matches at the end of the season. But worse than that, there doesn’t seem to be a way for the Bulls to get themselves out of the hole they created themselves.

With just games against the Lions (away) and Sharks (home) to look forward to, and the seismic shift that also took place in Nelspruit earlier in the day, the Bulls now will need to win somewhere if they are simply to survive and move out of the last place in the competition.

It was a horrible Bulls performance and none more summed up by Rosko Specman’s Jeckle and Hyde outing where he scored a beautiful try early on, but then fluffed three chances that he would easily have converted on any other night.

Now the Bulls are left searching for answers, and a warning from Human that if this is their own standard, they won’t be considered for Super Rugby next year. Bulls fans will be forgiven for wondering how it all went wrong from their strong Super Rugby performance and if the loss of their Springboks was worse than they imagined.

KIMBERLEY DREAMING

The depression in the home change-room was a stark contrast to that of Griquas, who bounced back strongly from their big loss to the Toyota Cheetahs last week and proved for once that their game was just as strong away from home as in their stronghold of Kimberley.

And it was a personal triumph for their coach Brent Janse van Rensburg – one of the best young coaches in the country who has been working tirelessly to build an impressive CV and now has a Loftus scalp as one of his achievements.

To be fair, Janse van Rensburg is proof of how much of a revamp the coaching system in SA currently needs, especially as he has had success with the Kings, Boland, Pumas and Griquas but can’t find a Super Rugby spot even as an assistant.

Two SuperSport Challenge titles with different teams makes good reading and if he was coaching in New Zealand, chances are he would have been an assistant coach to a Super Rugby franchise by now.

Still, the big takeaway from the match is that Griquas are no longer the early season form side that fades away. The shortened competition suits them and they now can dream of a home semifinal, although they will still need a result or two to go their way.

BLOEMFONTEIN CATFIGHT

If there is a team though that is riding their luck in the competition, it is the Xerox Golden Lions, who produced their third come-from-behind win to stay unbeaten and sit just behind Griquas with a game in hand at the top of the log.

The Lions’ fighting spirit came through and their talismanic fullback Tyrone Greene continues to impress as they fought back from being 19-0 down to win the game with a late penalty by Shaun Reynolds in the end.

The monster scrum that won them the penalty in that game even produced the funny moment for the weekend when No 8 Hacjivah Dayimani was so pumped in his celebrations that he high-fived referee Jaco Peyper, who was simply signalling the penalty.

But to be honest, the Cheetahs will be kicking themselves after they dominated most of the game, but refused to make their lives easier by taking kickable penalties – and a half dozen chances wasted, you can’t fault the Lions for taking theirs when it mattered.

These two sides could easily contest the final, but if the Cheetahs aren’t to learn their lesson from this game, they may well look back on what could have been later in the season.

PUMAS FINALLY GET THEIR SCALP

The most emotional reaction of the weekend was that of Phakisa Pumas coach Jimmy Stonehouse when the final whistle went and his side finally got a victory over the Cell C Sharks in Nelspruit.

And it was understandable – the Pumas should have beaten the Lions in their opening game, were in the contest against Griquas in week two until the last minute and were very competitive against the Bulls.

In a way it was a win that was coming for a long time, and for a union like the Pumas, it was on par with winning the competition.

Most importantly it moved them out of last spot, and placed all the pressure on the Bulls in the final fortnight as the spectre of promotion-relegation games continue.

The Sharks looked lethargic and hardly a shadow of the team their fans have come to expect to defend their title. But it is clear that Sean Everitt’s time in charge will take some more getting used to, and it will be unfair to expect a radical shift and success in just a few weeks.

But that will hardly be any solace to the defending champs, especially when they see what the Lions have achieved with such a young squad and the type of rugby they are playing.

JAGUARES NOT PROMOTED

Finally the one thing that has been clarified as the focus starts going into the last few weeks of the competition is that the Jaguares won’t be the team that will play promotion-relegation games, despite their clear lead in the First Division.

SA Rugby has clarified that the Argentinean team will not be able to play promotion-relegation games, and that right will be for the best placed South African side, which for the moment is the Valke, who sit in second spot on the log.

Interestingly the Valke may well lose that right as they head to Perth this week for a friendly with the Western Force in preparation for their entry into the Rapid Rugby League venture, and will face the Jaguares with a weakened side.

WEEKEND RESULTS

Vodacom Blue Bulls 15 Griquas 37

Toyota Free State Cheetahs 22 Xerox Golden Lions 24

Phakisa Pumas 27 Cell C Sharks 20