Currie Cup 2025

Lions vs Sharkies

24 - 0 almost halftime.

Halftyd...ek gaan gou hout koop.

46-5 Final score.

WP vs Bools up next.

Jeez, the Lions smashed the Sharks. I have no streams so can't watch Province. Probably gonna make fire and braai now anyway.

Stormers getting blown off the park by the reff...both locks in the bin...13-28...half hour in.

16-35 :-(

23-38

Well the sharks got blown away by the Lions.

Must be due to the fact that Kaptein was not available.

But most of the quality Sharkies are away with Kaptein being retrained under Rassie.

But no excuses the Sharks looked out classed.

WP het ook hulle gat gesien.

With the increased amount of other comps, It Looks like Currie Cup popularity has taken a major nose dive in SA.

I by mistake pressed my own likes button, it’s so bloody close! Sorry…

I by mistake pressed my own likes button, it’s so bloody close! Sorry…

No one would have known it was you :)

I don't care about the CC anymore. Sad, but the professional era has destroyed it with the best players either doing international duty or making money overseas. In the Bulls/WP game I recognize just 4 out of the 46 players in the match squads. It's like watching club rugby.

Did JJ play for the Saaarks?

How did he do? Did he score a million tires and look like he's better than Hooker and potentially a future great?

No Juju. If it wasn't for Bradley Davids and Hakeem Kunene on the team sheet, I wouldn't have been able to tell you what province it is if you put that it in front of me.

I must admit hen I saw the playing teams I never recognzed any names as being rgular Sharks players. International competition has has virtually destroyed the CC - as stated above it looks like it is - a fourth league elvel game situation.

In the 1960's to 1980's thehere were 2 levls of play in SA only - the tests and CC level. Now there are the following levels:-

1 Tests

2 European Champions Cup

3 URC

4 CC

None of the four franchise teams in SA has been competitive in the real CC for years now - finals have regularly involve more by Cheetahs and by the Pumas than by any other teams,

I cana lways remember from my dstant youth how really interesting CC matches were

1. Neels Combirnck was a Forestry profesional who got his BSC Forestry Degree at Stellenbosch and I wet to the final in Pretoria in 1964. As we tried tog et onto the side a naarthjie attack took place. In the final Engelbercht was regarded as the worst wing in SA by the Northern Transvaal supporters - just like De Allende is by the present site experts - and there was an attack on him by a Bulls player that would ahve eended in todays term in a red card and life-long ban - during which Engelbrecht's colalr bone was broken and hes tayed on the field. On two occassions a ball was passed to him in the WP 22 and the rest was he somehow cuagt tohe ball and scored under the goal post twice. So the WP on the test and he whole Pretoria went into mourning.
2. We were having the annual Frestry staff braai at the Fonteine in Pretoria in 1969 and 4 of the staff gort pissed out of our minds and decided to go to Kimberley o wach the CC Final. We had no money with us and when we woke up the enxt morning we were parked outside Warrenton on thee sidewalk and nobody could remember who drove the car dfrom Pretora to Warrenton. But none of us had any moneyw t him so I had to go to Trust Bank to draw money for tickets and petrol to get back to Pretoria - those days there were no computer system in place and if you want to get money out of the bank they had to get telephonic approval for paying out the money from Trust Bank in Pretoria, I evenmtually got R50 withdrawal and of we go to the stadium for watching the match. All four had serious hangover problems - but to that must added te fact the Bulls lost the match 6-0. And the fight was on - who will get us abck to Pretoria alive.

Another interesting match where I saw Jean de Villiers laying the forst time was in 2003 - also in a CC Match - in 2003. By that time the Super Rugby started in Febryary and ended in June each year, That allow for the CC to follow without any interuption by Super Rugby - so the players actually played in both competition. eek afte teh match I had to attend a meeting in Cape Town and then had to address a post graduate meeting at Stellenbosch about the ebbenfot of privatizing municipal services. I decided to use my own car to travel to Cape Town and back and since I was on my way to Cape Town I decided to se the Bloembfontei Cape Town route, When arriving at Bloemfotein I culd nto find any accommodation since there was an aNC conference in the city. So I decided to drive to Kimberley and sleep over there. Bookng into the Holiday Inn I found the WP team was in the In in the Hoel as well. I had a chat with Carel du Plessis and he offered me a team card to enter the stadium. Anyway WP had all their Springboks available for the team and they won with ease, That evening here were chaos at the hotel. A flock of the female species attacked and the next morning there were panties and use condoms lying in the Inn passages. The team had a breakfast before flying back to Cape Town I leff shortly after breakast left for Cape Town. After that incident I have believed that rape after matches is really the case here players are tempted into sex and then the female involved claim it was rape - what the ehell did they do in hotel room wher players were stayinng. So 95% of the claims are just gettig into the media and 5% are real rape cases.

The CC has definitely been reduced to a 2nd or 3rd tier competition when it comes to the Bulls, WP and Sharks - they are using it as a development program

Less so the Lions

Its why sides like Griquas and Pumas challenge strongly in the CC

Im more than happy to see these sides use the CC to blood youngsters - it makes complete sense given the status of the other competitions these sides compete in

Carling Currie Cup Premier Division 2025 table

Pos Team PL W L D PF PA DIFF TF TA PTS

1 Suzuki Griquas. 6 5 1 0 231 153 78 34 22 25

2 Sanlam Boland Kavaliers 6 4 2 0 193 172 21 27 25 23

3 Fidelity ADT Lions. 6 4 2 0 207 140 67 31 21 21

4 Toyota Cheetahs 6 4 2 0 172 162 10 26 24 21

5 Airlink Pumas 6 3 3 0 215 155 60 30 20 20

6 Vodacom Bulls 6 2 4 0 165 178 -13 24 24 10

7 Hollywoodbets Sharks 6 2 4 0 89 195 -106 11 29 10

8 DHL Western Province 6 0 6 0 117 234 -117 15 33 1

Boland is a surprise this season...hope they beat WP next week.

Perspective - the Bulls, Sharks and WP are literally fielding their C sides

No test or URC squad members are being used. Mostly youngsters with a scattering of old never beens