The Blue Bulls and the Boland Cavaliers are now clear favourites to reach the semifinals of this year's Vodacom Cup after again returning impressive results from their weekend fixtures.
The weekend provided some scintillating rugby and crystallised the teams who should contend for this year's title.
Defending champions the Lions have a statistical chance of making the playoffs but their poor performances throughout the tournament casts serious doubt on their ability to achieve this.
Four other teams in Section Y of the competition - Griquas, Leopards, Pumas and Cheetahs - are the only teams with a realistic chance of filling the last two semifinal berths.
The erratic and disappointing Western Province have the slightest of statistical chances but again, the form book suggests their challenge is over.
In the weekend's action, the underrated Wildeklawer Griquas completely demolished the Lions 44-11 in Kimberley.
Griquas ran in six tries to the Lions' one, with the visitors unable to score a single point in the second half.
It was the performance of the Griquas forwards that really made the difference as they dominated the tight phases and also outplayed the Lions around the fringes.
Lions coach Timmy Goodwin was quite clearly dissatisfied with his team's performance.
"I'm not happy at all. We let ourselves down in a couple of defensive situations and we made a few wrong choices," he said.
The Border Bulldogs continued their winning trend with a 36-25 victory over the Mighty Elephants.
The Bulldogs went into this match riding a wave of confidence after their upset victory over the Blue Bulls the week before.
Western Province left their surge too late and despite a spirited comeback 10 minutes from time still went down 36-32 to a dominant SWD Eagles outfit.
Their three wins from five starts has secured 14 points so far for the Eagles and they too have a statistical chance of making the semis although, again, the two teams in Group X (Bulls and Cavaliers) are so far ahead of the pack it's unlikely they'll be caught.
Eagles coach Johan Lerm was understandably satisfied with the win, despite the fact that his team didn't manage to secure a bonus point from the game.
"We are very happy with this result, especially because the game was played at Newlands. The last time we played here we got a hiding and it is great to go away with a win this time," Lerm said.
The Cheetahs routed the Natal Wildebeest 65-20 in Bloemfontein.
The home team scored the emphatic victory running in nine tries against the Wildebeest's three.
"I think this was the first time we completely gelled as a team and played as a unit and everything went right for us," said Cheetahs manager Cedric Carson.
The 19-year-old Herman Pretorius, who made his debut for the team in this match, scored one of the nine tries. He is the youngest player to run out our for a Free State team in more than 90 years.
Log leaders Blue Bulls put their shock defeat to the Border Bulldogs behind them when they beat the impressive Pumas 49-16.
The visitors ran in six tries and the flyhalf machine in Pretoria seems to have unearthed yet another superb number 10 in Jacques-Louis Potgieter, who touched down once and added 20 points with the boot.
The Wellington-based Cavaliers also turned in another big performance to trash the struggling Griffons 58-24 in Welkom.
The Cavaliers again showed why they are considered one of the most powerful teams in the competition by running in eight tries against the Griffons, who are the only team not to have won a single game the entire season.
In Potchefstroom, the Leopards played another good game for the third successive week and beat the Falcons 30-17.
"Our focus now is to continue playing well to get in the semis and I think we're on track," said Leopards coach Jacques Swanepoel. "We play the Cavaliers in Wellington next and that's going to be very tough because playing there is always very, very hard."
Scores:
Griquas (18) 44
Tries: Heinrich Stride, Alshaun Bock (2), Bobby Joubert, Gareth Krause, Willie Wepener. Conversions: Ederich Prinsloo (2), Braam van Straaten (2). Penalties: Ederich Prinsloo (2).
Lions (11) 11
Try: Gerhard Vosloo. Penalties: Clayton du Randt (2).
Border Bulldogs (24) 36
Tries: Tiger Mangweni, James Richards, Michael Coetzee (2), Luvo Sogidashe. Conversions: Reinahrdt Gerber (4). Penalty: Reinhardt Gerber.
Mighty Elephants (8) 25
Tries: Oscar Posthumus, Clinton van Rensburg, Elroy Ligman. Conversions: Justin Peach (2). Penalty: Justin Peach. Drop goal: Chris Jonck.
Western Province 32 (13)
Tries: Marvin Swaartbooi, Egon Seconds, Schalk Ferreira, Pieter Benade. Conversions: Marvin Swaartbooi (3). Penalties: Marvin Swaartbooi (2).
SWD Eagles 36 (20)
Tries: Tewis de Bruyn, Bevin Fortuin, Ricardo Pietersen. Conversions: Danie de Beer (3). Penalties: Danie de Beer (5).
Cheetahs 65 (25)
Tries: Philip Burger, Friedrich Lombard, Kabamba Floors, Bian Vermaak, Jaco du Toit, Wian du Preez, Herman Pretorius, Trompie Nontinsinga (2).
Conversions: Jacques Claassen (7)
Penalties: Jacques Claassen (2).
Natal Wildebeest 20 (8)
Tries: Jan-Toit van Jaarsveld, Braam Immelman, Jacques Schutte. Conversion: Brett Hennessey. Penalty: Herkie Kruger.
Griffons 24 (7)
Tries: Schalk de Klerk, Claudius Pamplin, David Johnson. Conversions: Ossie Damons (2), David Johnson. Penalty: David Johnson.
Boland Cavaliers 58 (25)
Tries: Ranfred Dazel (2), Jacques Badenhorst, Maurice Reid, Gustav Rademeyer, Solly Goosen (2), Enrico Swartz. Conversions: Solly Goosen (3). Penalties: Solly Goosen (4).
Leopards 30 (17)
Tries: Barry Geel, Bertus Swanepoel, Ronnie Cook. Conversions: Naas Olivier (2). Penalties: Naas Olivier (3). Falcons 17 (10)
Tries: Jacques Lombard, Deon Strydom. Conversions: Louis Strydom (2). Penalty: Louis Strydom.
Pumas 16 (13)
Try: Shaun van Rensburg. Conversion: Casper Steyn. Penalties: Casper Steyn (3).
Blue Bulls 49 (29)
Tries: Egan Friedrichs, Marius Delport (2), Ricardo Laubscher, Jacques-Louis Potgieter, Adriaan Fondse. Conversions: Jacques-Louis Potgieter (4), Joey Nongalo (1). Penalties: Jacques-Louis Potgieter (3). - Sapa