Currie Cup crunch time
De Bruin says his team are utterly motivated for clash.
It’s a Currie Cup elimination scenario for either the Golden Lions or the Free State Cheetahs at Ellis Park today with a fierce battle expected to unfold for a last-ditch place in the play-offs.
Effectively a quarterfinal, both teams have been strengthened a great deal with the Lions calling on four of their five returning Springboks, while the Cheetahs have boosted their side with their returning Pro14 stars.
Coach Swys de Bruin, who also dismissed talks of lock Franco Mostert’s link to an English club, said it’s games like these that put the necessary injection back in the competition.
“Our game is the final one on Saturday so by kick-off we will know what we’ll have to do,” said De Bruin. “They beat us earlier in Bloemfontein (30-24) with a try in the dying minutes (by Sergeal Petersen) so we expect another fierce catfight.”
There will be a battle between Province on 32 points, the Cheetahs on 31 and the Lions on 30, with the Blue Bulls and the Pumas having finished their fixtures last night.
“The nature of the competition saw us fourth or third one week and then last the next, but there’s no pressure, rather it’s excitement,” said De Bruin.
“We are not looking past this weekend, but we certainly won’t be lacking any motivation.”
Cheetahs coach Rory Duncan said Free State Rugby’s vision and objective is to keep the Currie Cup trophy in the Free State, and therefore, “each and every match from now on will be seen and played as a potential final”.
“This is an extremely important game for the Free State Cheetahs. We will be pushing as hard as we possibly can to get results,” said Duncan.
Cheetahs captain Torsten van Jaarsveld hinted that they aim to lift their game to a higher level than the Currie Cup.
“We aim to perform to the standard that we played in the Guinness Pro14,” said Van Jaarsveld.
Kick-off: 5.15pm.