Can the Lions halt Cheetahs’ charge?

WITH no United Rugby Championship (URC) games featuring South African sides this weekend, it’s back to the Currie Cup.

The struggling Sigma Lions will take on the Free State Cheetahs in the first game of the weekend at 7pm on Friday, with the Sharks going up against the Pumas on Saturday (2.30pm), followed by the Bulls against Griquas (5pm).

It’s been a disastrous season for the Lions in the domestic competition. Not only are they at the bottom of the log, but they have also failed to register a single win in eight games.*

While they did look better in terms of performance in their last Currie Cup run out, a positive result remained elusive. Needless to say, the unbeaten Cheetahs are the favourites to come out on top.

The Sharks versus Pumas might have a bit more balance to it given the positions of the two sides (third and fifth respectively), but it’s the Bulls game that should be the most anticipated one.

While Bulls director of rugby Jake White has hinted that he might use some of his URC stars in the Currie Cup in their games before they face Ospreys, it will be interesting to see his ratio.

The former Springbok mentor has previously used a large number of the same players in both the Currie Cup and the URC, and while it has paid off in the domestic competition – they are first on the standings – the workload is naturally an issue.

After their win over Glasgow Warriors at the weekend, White spoke about how he plans on going about his player management.

“I think it’s going to be about management in terms of keeping the squad hungry and fresh but also limiting the time for some guys, like on the bench,” White said after the game.

“We probably learned that when we played Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday, we were quite good.

“I’m not saying we want to keep playing like that but if I compare, we looked a bit flat last week against Benetton because we had two weeks off.

“I’ll have to look at the combinations and see who’s available.

“Five guys are going to the alignment camp and that disrupts the preparation as well.”

Western Province, who haven’t had much luck in the competition, have a bye this week.

After their URC victory over log-leading Leinster, Stormers head coach John Dobson also said that they might have a few guys play in Jerome Paarwater’s group as their last regular URC match is against Scarlets on May 21.