The Toyota Cheetahs’ participation in this year’s Currie Cup Premier Division is under early threat after the Sanlam Boland Cavaliers beat coach Frans Steyn’s troops 45-29 in a SA Cup Round One clash at Boland Stadium in Wellington at the weekend.
In this year’s second edition of the 10-team SA Cup, four spots are up for grabs to qualify for the Currie Cup Premier Division. And with the Cheetahs no longer recognised as a big South African franchise union, they also have to wrestle with other non-franchise unions like Boland, Airlink Pumas and Suzuki Griquas among others for one of the four qualifying spots.
Under early pressure
The big loss – albeit claiming a bonus point for scoring four tries – means the Steyn’s Cheetahs find themselves on the back foot early as they still need to face two big favourites for the SA Cup title and qualification for the Currie Cup Premier Division in the Airlink Pumas and Suzuki Griquas.
Steyn, who won two World Cup titles as a Springbok, however, chose to be upbeat despite the loss in Wellington this past Saturday and said:
Ja, I think the biggest takeaway [from this loss] is that we got some game time under the belt.
I think we were good, I think physically we were good and I spoke to the guys afterwards and they said they felt they still had something in the tank and I think if we can cut down on the mistakes we made today and, penalties wise, improve our discipline we need to work harder.
Sleeping Giant Rising?
Meanwhile, the Sanlam Boland Cavaliers could not have asked for a better start to their aspirations of qualifying for the Currie Cup Premier Division after winning back-to-back Currie Cup First Division titles in 2023 and 2024.
Asked about the winning start against a team he formerly coached Cavaliers boss, Hawie Fourie said:
We started of really well scoring three tries before they could get on the scoreboard. Then we sort of backed off a little bit and let it slip by conceding a yellow card and that brought them back into the game.
But we always knew and we usually speak about Cava time and that’s the last 10 to 15 minutes where we try to raise the intensity and we outplayed them and that is what this team is about. The guys delivered on the field and sometimes you can speak about thins and have nice slogans, but if you don’t deliver on the field, it means nothing.
Losing start for Coetzee’s Eastern Province
In the weekend’s other SA Cup games, former Springbok and Namibia coach Allister Coetzee’s second tenure as coach of Eastern Province Elephants got of to a losing start after his team threw away a 22-14 halftime lead and lost 41-30 to the Hino Valke in Kempton Park.
Defending SA Cup champions Suzuki Griquas made a strong statement in their 64-7 stomping of the Leopards in Potchefstroom, while the Novavit Griffons had to work hard to eventually put away the Border Bulldogs 55-23 in East London.
The Airlink Pumas clipped the Phangela Eagles wings by scoring 11 tries in a 75-7 win at Outeniqua Park in George.
