Currie Cup to spring surprises

THE Currie Cup could throw up more surprises than a Quinton Tarantino film, considering it’s a World Cup year and several leading teams will be understrength.

Losing players to the Springboks is not unusual for the big unions during the Currie Cup season, but they tend to have their stars return in time for the business end of the campaign.

But this year, the latter stages of the Currie Cup coincide with the latter stages of the Rugby World Cup, so the Sharks, Western Province and the Blue Bulls, in particular, will have to cope with journeymen and youngsters.

It adds a fresh dimension to the tournament that began in 1891 as teams such as the Pumas and Griquas could make a serious run for the semifinals in the eight-team premier division.

The Pumas won the Vodacom Cup earlier this year and will welcome back scrumhalf Faf de Klerk, lock Lubabalo Mtyanda and possibly newly capped Springbok tighthead Vincent Koch to add Super Rugby quality.

The Pumas host the Sharks in round one. Griquas had to fight their way through a difficult seven-match qualification for the Premier Division after finishing last last year, so they will go into the tournament battle-hardened.

First up for the Kimberley outfit are defending champs Western Province at home, who are under new coaching staff headed by John Dobson.

WP haven’t looked sharp in their short pre-season, losing to the Pumas and scraping home against the EP Kings, but they have yet to put their best team on the field.

The Blue Bulls head to Bloemfontein for their opener against the Free State Cheetahs on Saturday, which should be a good litmus test of both teams’ longterm ambitions and also the style they are going to adopt.