URC preparations present curve ball to top Currie Cup contenders
All the smaller unions will have plenty to play for in a decisive final round of the Carling Currie Cup but the intentions of the city based teams to use this phase to accelerate their buildup to the Vodacom United Rugby Championship season will make their respective tasks extra challenging.
The Currie Cup is arguably played these days for the smaller unions, and it has been the Suzuki Griquas, Sanlam Boland Cavaliers, Toyota Cheetahs and the Airlink Pumas who have answered the call by providing most of the talking points in what this year has been a single round competition.
Boland faltered last weekend in an exciting game played at a well populated Woodburn Stadium in Pietermaritzburg at the hands of a Hollywoodbets Sharks XV that has grown immeasurably in a short period of time.
The two bonus points they picked up did place them second at the end of the penultimate round, just behind Griquas, and as they are facing the last placed team, DHL Western Province, on the final weekend you’d normally back them to retain the top two position that will secure them a coveted semifinal.
One more round to go 👀
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) September 1, 2025
Five teams battling it out for four spots in the semi-finals 🍿
DHL Western Province still remain winless.#SSRugby | #CurrieCup pic.twitter.com/LUCiiBFeT0
PUMAS GAME WAS LAST THAT WP TEAM WILL PLAY
It is not as simple as that, however, as their loss to Pumas last weekend was the last game the WP team that has played most of the Currie Cup season will play together.
On Saturday they will take on a Stormers URC look as the Cape franchise uses the game as their first warmup to the URC, which kicks off on the weekend of 26/27 September.
The Stormers will play the Sharks in their second warmup game in George the following weekend before taking a two-week break ahead of the start of what should be another long, arduous and potentially attritional URC and Investec Champions Cup season.
SHARKS HAVE DOUBLE HEADER TO START URC PREP
The Sharks have two games in what should be an appetising Hollywoodbets Kings Park Friday double header for KZN rugby fans who had their appetite whetted by the excitement of the game in Pietermaritzburg, which was won by a Siya Masuku penalty five minutes after the hooter.
English club Saracens are in town and will be facing the Sharks in a curtain-raiser to the final Currie Cup game against the Pumas, which kicks off 7:05pm.
Saracens have some of their top players with them on tour but it is likely they will field a young team, so the Sharks will most likely field a stronger URC strength side in the Currie Cup game, where the Pumas are good enough to provide the kind of stiff opposition they need as they prepare for a tough URC start that features the likes of Glasgow Warriors and Leinster in the early stages.
Just what Pumas coach Jimmy Stonehouse might think of that would be interesting to find out, because the Pumas are currently fifth, just one point behind the Cheetahs and Lions, who currently complete the four team semifinal bracket.
So for the 2022 champions there’s a lot riding on this game, and yet they will be up against a side that should feature several fresh players making their seasonal debuts.
STONEHOUSE SHOULDN’T FEEL ALONE
It could of course work in Stonehouse’s favour - the Sharks team that won in Pietermaritzburg has played several games together and was starting to gel impressively, to the point that you’d have fancied them to make the top four if the Currie Cup was played over a double round this year as in past seasons.
But it is not as if the Pumas should feel they’ve drawn a short-straw, as they and Boland won’t be alone in playing URC strengths teams.
The Lions have generally been the odd one out of the URC franchises anyway when it comes to treating the Currie Cup as a development competition, but they bulked up on URC players even further for last week’s game against the Bulls.
They are likely to be at URC strength when they host Griquas, who are assured of a top four finish but need to win against the Lions in Johannesburg on Saturday afternoon to make sure of a top two finish.
The Bulls started out with a strong, experienced side, then changed tack when Johan Ackermann arrived to take up the reins of URC coach from Jake White, but are understood to be using their Loftus clash with the Cheetahs as a URC warmup game.
The Lions are the only team aligned to a URC franchise who are still in the running for a semifinal spot.
Making it through might though prove a poisoned chalice for them as there is no break between the Currie Cup final on 20 September and the first round of the URC, something that last year’s winners, the Sharks, felt cost them in the early stages of their URC campaign.
FINAL ROUND FIXTURES
Hollywoodbets Sharks XV v Airlink Pumas (Durban, Friday 7pm)
DHL Western Province v Sanlam Boland Kavaliers (Cape Town, Saturday 2:45pm)
ADT Fidelity Lions v Suzuki Griquas (Johannesburg, Saturday 5pm)
Vodacom Blue Bulls v Toyota Free State Cheetahs (Pretoria, Saturday 7:05p,)
CARLING CURRIE CUP LOG POINTS AFTER SIX GAMES
- 1. Suzuki Griquas 25
- 2. Sanlam Boland Kavaliers 23
- 3. ADT Fidelity Lions 21
- 4. Toyota Free State Cheetahs 21
- 5. Airlink Pumas 20
- 6. Vodacom Blue Bulls 10
- 7. Hollywoodbets Sharks XV 10
- 8. DHL Western Province 1
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