It’s now a shoot-out between the Lions and Sharks for a place in the Currie Cup semi-finals.
The winner of Friday evening’s last round fixture at Ellis Park will qualify for the play-offs; the loser will miss out completely.
The scenario is at least a fairly exciting one at the back end of a Currie Cup competition that has been dull and hardly a good advertisement for domestic rugby in South Africa.
The Lions, thanks to their walloping of the hapless EP Kings in PE on Saturday, have given themselves a chance of making the play-offs after what has been a rather disappointing campaign for Johan Ackermann’s defending champions. They’ll go into the match with four wins and three defeats behind them and knowing they last lost at Ellis Park in the Currie Cup in the 2014 season.
Ackermann’s men were unbeaten last year and they’ve won all three of their matches on their home ground this year. The Sharks though have been the more consistent performers of the two teams and will still fancy their chances in Johannesburg.
Robert du Preez’s men will, however, go into the ‘quarter-final’ a little cold having not played this last weekend; the Sharks enjoying their bye.
As it stands, the Sharks are third with 25 points, while the Lions are fifth with 22 points.
In fourth place are Western Province, with 23 points after their five-point haul against Griquas on Friday, and they should collect another five against neighbours, Boland, in their last game.
Boland have only won twice this season and while they’ll be desperate to end well and put up a good showing against their bigger brother, expect WP to collect the points required to make the top four.
Already secured of a home semi-final are the Cheetahs, who continued their unbeaten run in the competition with a thumping win against the Pumas. Franco Smith’s men have now gone seven games without defeat and with 34 points are well set to finish top of the pile.
They host Griquas on Saturday - a team that still have an outside chance of making the play-offs, but they’d have to beat the front-runners and hope two other results go their way.
The Bulls, big winners against Boland on Friday, look set to finish second, even though they have their bye this weekend. They will be watching what happens between the Sharks and Lions because only the Durbanites can pass them on the points table.
RESULTS
Kings 7 Lions 71; Griquas 31 WP 52; Pumas 10 Cheetahs 52; Boland 26 Bulls 48
FIXTURES
Friday: Lions v Sharks, Kings v Pumas; WP v Boland
Saturday: Cheetahs v Griquas
The Star