As anticipated, DHL Western Province and the Xerox Golden Lions confirmed their positions at the top of the Absa Currie Cup log with bonus point home wins over the weekend, but they may have reason now to be looking nervously over their shoulders.

The Cell C Sharks have looked woeful for most of the season and until the second half against the Toyota Free State Cheetahs 10 days again, they just weren’t converting their line breaks or stringing phases together.

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That changed in that 40 minutes in Bloemfontein as they fought back from a deficit to claim a draw and it suggest just the hint of a resurgence for the Durban team. That resurgence was confirmed with their unexpected win over the Vodacom Blue Bulls at Loftus.

Some would say it is in keeping with Sharks tradition – lose the matches you aren’t expected to, like the home clash against GWK Griquas a couple of weeks ago, and then go and win your biggest and toughest match of the season so far, against the Blue Bulls on their home ground. WP was the only team before the Sharks to beat the Blue Bulls in any competition this season, so the win was a significant one for the Sharks.

The Blue Bulls did conspire against themselves with some woeful work at the lineouts, but that should not detract from the Sharks’ performance, particularly the second half, which was when they put it together to draw away from a Bulls team that had dominated the match until halftime without being able to convert that dominance into points.

The win means the Sharks are now in third place on the log and although it would be stretching it to suggest their position is comfortable as they have just a one point lead over the fourth and fifth placed Steval Pumas and Free State Cheetahs, they are in a much better position than appeared likely before the weekend. Had they lost to the Blue Bulls, they would have slipped to sixth, which is the position the Blue Bulls now occupy.

The battle for the fringe semifinal spots is still wide open, with the sixth placed Blue Bulls still only five points adrift. The Sharks should deal with the EP Kings at Kings Park this coming weekend without too much difficulty, but then they face the top two teams in successive weeks to close off the regular season – the Golden Lions at home and then WP away.

Winning both those games will be a tough ask, but then them winning against the Blue Bulls seemed unlikely before the weekend. It does put pressure on WP to produce against the Pumas in Nelspruit on Friday while the Golden Lions will have to guard against slipping on any banana peels when they travel to Kimberley.

Province will go to Nelspruit with the carrot of knowing that knocking over the Pumas will mean almost certain qualification for a home final as it will mean they have a lead of eight or nine points on the third placed team. Should they slip up, however, and the Sharks will move into range, and the Golden Lions will catch them up on the log.

The Pumas’ form at home this season has been excellent, so Friday’s will be a big game for both sides. Griquas meanwhile will host the Golden Lions knowing they need to improve on their effort against WP this past weekend. They were outplayed in the first half to trail 24-0 at the break and while they did fight back to some extent in the second half, the result did bring a grinding halt to what had been impressive momentum following wins against the Sharks and Pumas.

Weekend Results:

Xerox Golden Lions 29 / 15 Steval Pumas
DHL Western Province 36 / 12 GWK Griquas
EP Kings 22 / 37 Toyota Free State Cheetahs
Vodocom Blue Bulls 15 / 26 Cell C Sharks