Currie Cup: Pumas - Griquas @ Mbombela Stadium, Nelspruit (29-07-2011, 18:00 GMT)

[TRF_Ezequiel]

Mbombela Stadium, Nelspruit (29-07-2011, 18:00 GMT)

After two near losses, the Ford Pumas will be looking to record their first victory of the Absa Currie Cup season against GWK Griquas in Nelspruit on Friday evening.

The team from Mpumalanga narrowly went down to the MTN Golden Lions in the first round (31-27) and The Sharks (23-22) last week.

While the Ford Pumas made a good fist of their opening round match at Coca-Cola Park two weekends ago, their opponents on Friday struggled against the MTN Golden Lions and lost by 11-49 in Kimberley last Saturday.

Taking only these results into consideration, the Ford Pumas can be regarded as favourites, but things don’t always work out like that. Last year GWK Griquas won both these fixtures easily.

“It’s time we start accumulating log points, but this is also a very dangerous game this, because Griquas lost heavily last week and will be looking to set the record straight,” said Ford Pumas coach Jimmy Stonehouse.

“I’m confident in the way we’ve been playing, even though we’ve lost, because we’re not making the kind of mistakes we’ve made before and are competing better. It won’t be easy on Friday though, because Griquas are a top side and will test us, like they did last year.”

Speaking about playing in Nelspruit for the second consecutive week, away from they usual base in Witbank, Stonehouse said: “We really enjoy playing at the Mbombela Stadium. It’s got a great surface, is a brand new stadium and we get great support there.”

Ford Pumas vs GWK Griquas
Date: Friday, 29 July
Kick-off: 19:00
Venue: Mbombela Stadium, Nelspruit
Referee: Marius Jonker
Last year in Absa Currie Cup:
13 August – GWK Griquas won 58-25 in Kimberley
2 October – GWK Griquas won by 61-31 in Witbank

[TRF_Ezequiel]

Pumas: 15 MJ Mentz, 14 Deon Scholtz, 13 JW Jonker, 12 Tiaan Marx, 11 Shandré Frolick, 10 Coenie van Wyk, 9 Shaun Venter, 8 Christo le Roux, 7 Jaco Bouwer, 6 Corné Steenkamp (captain), 5 Marius Coetzer, 4 Willem Serfontein, 3 Ashley Buys, 2 Pellow van der Westhuizen, 1 Dawie Steyn.
Replacements: 16 Torsten van Jaarsveld, 17 De-Jay Terblanche, 18 Eduan van der Walt, 19 RW Kember, 20 Tian Meyer, 21 Johan Jackson, 22 Carl Bezuidenhout.

Griquas: 15. Riaan Viljoen, 14. Richard Lawson, 13. Jean Stemmet, 12. Barry Geel, 11. Dusty Noble, 10. Earl Rose, 9. Marnus Hugo, 8. Jonathan Mokuena (Captain), 7. Davon Raubenheimer, 6. Justin Downey, 5. Martin Muller, 4. Hendrik Roodt, 3. Lourens Adriaanse, 2. Ryno Barnes, 1. Steph Roberts
Replacements: 16. Matthew Dobson, 17. Jean Botha, 18. Frederik Albertus Spies, 19. Burger Schoeman, 20. Warren Malgas, 21. Matthew Rosslee, 22. Rudi Vogt

[TRF_Draggs]

Earl Rose... lulz.
Lets van Wyk run through him for a 40m try and then misses a sitter.

...And misses the conversion from Lawson's try.
Do the Griquas realise that Riaan Viljoen plays for them?

-Rose just had a kick on his 22 charged down and nearly concedes a try. He then clears from in goal and slices the kick. Oh dear.

-I might just list all of Rose's failures, it's more interesting than the match itself. Rose has missed another rather simple kick, pulling it left. He has now missed 7 points. Griquas lead 13-7 on 28 minutes.

-He's made one now, right in front of the post.

[Seaton]

Rose is being put under immense pressure from Van Wyk, he's just flying up at a pace that would trouble Usain Bolt.
Looks of fright on his face show that mentally he has been shot already

Apart from that, been a decent game so far, fast pace and oppurtunities being taken

How you watching this Draggs? On telly, or other means

Pumas yellow...

[TRF_Draggs]

Other means.
This Van Wyk seems to be a pretty decent outside half in a team being outclassed.

A few nice touches from Riaan Viljoen; he's not had an opportunity to really use his boot today.

Another try for the Griquas, Rudi Vogt slots the conversion.

[TRF_Ezequiel]

Seems like this time, my big bet is going the right way!!! 5000 on the Griquas by more than 7!!! Looks good so far

[TRF_Draggs]

I should have put my massive 10 on the Griquas.
7-34 Halftime. Griquas doing well despite Earl Rose. I had never understood why everyone seemed to loathe Rose; I can now see that he is simply awful.

[Feicarsinn]

Lift it boys...

[TRF_Ezequiel]

Griquas are a team of highs and lows so far. A draw at Newlands, followed by a thrashing at home from the Lions. Now they are toying with the Pumas again. You can see they are missing Sarel Pretorius, Naas Olivier and Bjorn Basson. 3 major influences that gave them massive results last year...

[Seaton]

This is the first bad game he has had in many a month

I think his career has spiralled simply because he couldn't deal with the immense over-reactive negativity in the public/ media regarding his inclusion in the 2008 EOYT
He had a solid Currie Cup, but fell away in the last 3-4 games, which rightly meant that he didn't play on the tour

He then had a poor S14 the following year, and was harshly and publicly chastised and humiliated by the then Lions coach

Of all the players I want to succeed in world rugby, no one more than Earl Rose

[TRF_Draggs]

Fair enough. I don't know his history, and I can only comment on what I have seen.
It sucks when a young player with potential is thrown into the spotlight and torn to bits when they make mistakes. I hope this doesn't happen to Matthew Morgan, who has immense potential yet already billed as a future superstar.

Cheetahs could be pretty angry at the Griquas for losing good players such as Pretorius and Viljoen. Wouldn't have been a bad S15 side at all.
14-34 to Griquas, try to JW Jonker after a bit of football.

[TRF_Ezequiel]

How can the Cheetahs blame Griquas? The contracts ended and Viljoen and Pretorius both did not want to re-sign with the Griquas union. The Cheetahs signed Raubenheimer and Geel from Griquas. That is quite sad. Weakening one of your fellow franchise-pools like that can cause serious issues in the future. With weakening the Griquas, the team might slip down the log ladder and be less interested for potential Super15 rugby players.

The fact that Olivier moved to Aironi, Pretorius moved to Waratahs and Viljoen to the Sharks is nothing the Cheetahs can be angry about. If they wanted to retain these players, they should have tried and keep them within the franchise. The Griquas union is free to sell any player they want like they did with Bjorn Basson.

The Griquas are also free not to break salary policy which might have kept the players in Kimberley. A wise decision if I might say

[TRF_Draggs]

Perhaps that was the wrong word choice.
I am sure the Cheetahs (S15 side) would have liked to have those players in their side.

19-37 to the Griquas. Pumas looking a bit better now.

[Seaton]

A little bit of input you might not know, some of the more prominent Griquas players that play big roles in Cheetahs superugby franchise, sometimes are also payed by the Cheetahs, however this is only when the Griquas player enters into contract negotiations and it is evident he will have a superrugby role.

I mind 40% of Basson's total salary was paid by the Cheetahs

This is done of course because the Griquas lose the players services for the Vodacom cup, and the risk of injury

As far as I am aware, this happens at other unions, but rarely are there smaller union players that spend long periods with the Superrugby team

[TRF_Ezequiel]

I think the Griquas union is the only smaller union that has players participating in the Super Rugby.

About the shared-ownership of player contracts... that might have been relevant in the case of Basson, but with Olivier, Pretorius and Viljoen (the big 3) the issue was contracts expiring. So if the Cheetahs did not try to renew the contracts or did not succeed (if they tried), tough luck on them.

[Seaton]

I wasn't prescribing it to the case of the Cheetahs losing a player, just pointing it out, because its the same thing with Viljoens contract with the Griquas

And whilst they did not play, a couple of Leopards/ Pumas players were in the general Lions squad this year


Griquas win 40-33

Lol, Roses on the hooter drop-goal attempt demolished the seat it hit

[TRF_Ezequiel]

Michael Bondesio jumps to mind when you mention the Puma-benchwarmers... Who are the other ones?

[TRF_Draggs]

33-40 to the Griquas, Full time.
Pumas did well in the second half, but again fall short.
That Barry Geel seems to be a decent player, could be a good backline for the Cheetahs with both of the Ebersohn's and some decent wings.

[TRF_Ezequiel]

43-33 final score right?

[Seaton]

Michael Bondesio jumps to mind when you mention the Puma-benchwarmers... Who are the other ones?

Lol, left out Leopards, which is where Bondesio was from, and as you know with the Lions now
Other players involved with the wider squad were Ricardo Croy, MJ Mentz, Corne Steenkamp...

Those are the only ones I can remember off hand, will have to have a wee look to check other players

[TRF_Draggs]

33-40 according to ESPNscrum.
Did Rose make the second DG attempt?

[Feicarsinn]

Meh, I guess the bonus point will do. Happy with the revival.

[Feicarsinn]

Meh, I guess the bonus point will do. Happy with the revival. Also, the Vbookie has the win down incorrectly.

[TRF_Ezequiel]

I checked sarugby.co.za, which said 43-33

[Seaton]

Looks like we got conflicting sources here.

Well, Rose missed the drop goal attempt, and Supersport has it down as 40-33

[TRF_Ezequiel]

SAR dot koza corrected it now