Currie Cup wrap

It might be premature to suggest the cat is among the pigeons after only one round of the 2009 Absa Currie Cup.

Rob Houwing, Sport24 chief writer

Yet some interesting little markers were set down, all the same – and on the wrong end of them were the champions, the Sharks, and another team with a proud domestic record over the past few years, the Cheetahs.

Indeed, had the Lions been able to register a shock Highveld derby victory at Loftus after opening up a 13-point lead at one stage, the early form book might have been said to have been particularly emphatically toppled.

But the Bulls, last season’s runners-up and the Super 14 title-holders, restored some “sanity� to the opening weekend by clawing back for a less-than-postcard-perfect win.

Griquas stun Cheetahs

Certainly the most jaw-dropping result of the opening round was Griquas’ stunning sacking of the Cheetahs in their Bloemfontein stronghold, with the hosts not even registering a consolation bonus point.

Griquas actually had the audacity to notch four tries for a full log haul of five points themselves and a cheeky tournament lead for at least one week.

It could even be for longer, though — they are at home next Saturday to the newly-promoted (and already ominously beaten by Boland) Leopards.

WP strangles Sharks

Nevertheless, it remains hard to see the men from Kimberley sustaining a table-topping charge as the competition progresses, and maybe the really significant event thus far has been sleeping giant Western Province’s surprisingly comfortable 14-point victory over the Sharks at a soggy Newlands.

Bear in mind that, truckload of absent Springboks or not, this remained a very workmanlike Sharks team on paper, especially in the front five with three crusty internationals plus another regular in lock Steven Sykes.

And yet they were rather humbled in the engine room by a Province pack certainly gaining yards now in their quest to put to pasture a “southern softies� dubious mantle.

Fired astonishingly early by a dream debut try well within the opening minute for gnarly All Blacks second-row acquisition Chris Jack, the WP eight did a gradual, near-ruthless strangulation job on their rivals.

The set scrums were an appropriate indicator of hometown superiority: Province claimed what seemed at least one genuine heel against the head, once forced Rory Kockott into transgression with a skew feed under back-pedalling pressure, while Deon Carstens and Craig Burden being substituted with a good chunk of the contest left also illustrated their unlikely pain in this department.

What’s more, WP hit the breakdowns with zeal – Pieter Louw was a dynamo throughout — and whenever bouts of handbags erupted, there were more blue-and-white-hooped combatants at the ready than you would normally expect from this traditionally docile lot.

Of concern to the champions’ coach, John Plumtree, would have been their way-too-rare incursions into the hosts’ 22, especially in the second period, and instead they relied on Kockott’s mostly unerring place-kicking boot to stay vaguely in the hunt for decent tracts of the game.

Province had a “machine� of their own, though, in 19-point Willem de Waal, who has got playing in inclement Cape Town conditions down to a rather fine art.

And when the rain relented after the break, there were occasional opportunities for WP to show off some creative new (Robbie Fleck-inspired, perhaps?) running lines with Morgan Newman a slippery customer at No 13.

It wasn’t perfect: Ricky Januarie is still not back to remotely near his best form at scrumhalf, and still offers the suggestion that he is at the midnight strawberry ice-cream too much. When Dewaldt Duvenage offered fresh legs in the position, his own passing was a tad wonky.

The Sharks at least ought to break their duck against Boland in Durban on Friday, while Province move on to a spicy encounter against their traditional foes the Bulls in Pretoria which will determine further whether their “grunt� renaissance is for real.

If big Duane Vermeulen is fit for the trip, Luke Watson’s side will be even further buoyed – not that either of Louw or Pieter Myburgh, on Saturday’s evidence, is willing to vacate a starting jersey in a hurry …

Next weekend (home teams first):

Friday: Sharks v Boland. Saturday: Griquas v Leopards, Lions v Cheetahs, Blue Bulls v Western Province.