2010 ABSA Currie Cup. Who Will Win?

[TRF_Ezequiel]

The new ABSA Currie Cup season is starting in 10 days! Who will win this year? Is the the Blue Bulls? Or maybe the Sharks? Or maybe the Lions, Stormers or Cheetahs can snatch a surprising victory!

I think it will be either the Bulls or the Sharks.

Blue Bulls:

The Blue Bulls have lost Bryan Habana to The Stormers but the Bulls still have some amazing players including the strong Pierre Spies, awesome kicker Morne Steyn, Captain Victor Matfield but also still Fourie du Preez and Bakkies Botha.


Natal Sharks:

The Sharks lost Francois Steyn who moved to France to play for Racing Metro in Paris. However, they still have an amazing squad with the du Plessis-brothers Bismarck and Jannie, Ruan Pienaar, JP Pietersen, Springbok-captain John Smit but also future stars Keegan Daniel and Rory Kockott. My eyes will be focussed on Ryan Kankowski!



What do you guys think? Will the Stormers have a chance now that Habana joined their ranks or is there a slight chance for outsiders as the Cheetahs and Lions?

 

[Seaton]

Meh, I can't decide

My heart says Sharks, but my head says Western Province (Stormers)
The Sharks are destined to be without Pienaar, as they might as well tell him to bugger off to Ireland, no need to develop talent we won't have for next season.
If Lambie plays fly-half, and performs well, my heads opinion might change to Sharks
Then again, IF Fourie du Preez returns before the end of the year, then my head will switch towards the Bulls.

The Sharks have an added bonus that the Bulls and Province have had more players call up to Springbok duty than the Sharks, which is different from years past.
So the Sharks S14 'failure' might lead to Currie Cup success, as the players not on Bok duty might have first spot wrapped up by the time the Bulls/Province Boks get back, and they would have the added bonus of being a well gelled unit.

Heres hoping Heart is enough.

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

That's a good argument. I would prefer it the other way around though. I would love to see the Sharks win the Super14 in stead of the Currie Cup. But then again, I am happy with any price they will win. I hope Ruan Pienaar will still play for the Sharks. If he does move to Europe I am going to have a busy couple of months ahead of me. Going to see Francois Steyn play in Paris and now maybe Pienaar in Ireland or the UK

 

[Seaton]

That's a good argument. I would prefer it the other way around though. I would love to see the Sharks win the Super14 in stead of the Currie Cup. But then again, I am happy with any price they will win. I hope Ruan Pienaar will still play for the Sharks. If he does move to Europe I am going to have a busy couple of months ahead of me. Going to see Francois Steyn play in Paris and now maybe Pienaar in Ireland or the UK

Ulster have confirmed his signature
I remember Steyn didn't play for us after signing for Metro, I don't know if the Sharks were payed to release him early, or if they just punted him.

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

I hope the Sharks can win the Currie Cup and then afterwards go all the way in the Super 14

Runner-up in 1996, 2001 and 2007 and losing semi-finalist in 1997 and 2008... Still waiting for that first win. Maybe this year there might be a slight chance!

 

[Boggle]

Bad news, but this year the Super 14 has already been won

I get what you're saying though, you want them to win the CC this year and continue on to win the S15 next year.

With the number of WP and Bulls players called up for the boks I'd think it might actually be the cheetahs or Sharks again this year, but the Bulls always manage to get a decent position and then take it all the way when their boks return later in the competition.
This year I'm hoping WP can do the same thing, and in fact last year was enough of a performance for me to think we might actually be able to do it this time round, not to mention that we followed up a great CC season with a great Super 14 season this year,
which only increases my hopes.

so, if the Bulls don't have Fourie Du Preez, I'm gonna go for a WP win in 2010.

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

Sorry... Still have to get used to the whole Super15-format I keep on calling it Super14...

 

[Intercept King JDV]

Okay guys a poll has been added, so vote!
WP I feel will have the strongest chance and I'm not just saying that because I'm a WP supporter, but based on the fact that WP will be the team that will retain most of its core players that played in the Super 14.

1.Wicus Blaauw
2.Tiaan Liebenberg
3.Brok Harris
4.Adriaan Fondse
5.Anton Van Zyl
6.Pieter Myburgh
7.Pieter Louw
8.Duane Vermeulen

9.Dewaldt Duvenhage
10.Peter Grant
11.Fabian Juries
12.Tim Whitehead
13.Frikkie Welsh
14.Sireli Naqelevuki
15.Conrad Jantjes

The above is only a team that I quickly put together not taking into account the players that will be playing for the Boks.

 

[User1245]

Who the hell voted for the Pumas? We got a closet Puma fan around :lol:

The Sharks have a very good chance this year, we need to get as much wins (of course) and especially bonus points as possible while the Boks from the other teams are playing in the Tri-Nations.
We still got JP Pietersen, Jean Deysel and Adi Jacobs coming back from injury, so depth is our strong point this season. Would also like to see Terblanche finally get a CC win with us before he retires.

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

You know that Terblanche won the CC with the Sharks in 2008 right? Man, he was the best man on the pitch in the final!

 

[Seaton]

@ Intercept King

Grant is offski to play rugby in Japan, and will only return for the S15 next year. Big loss for WP
I thought Nakelavuki was off to France?

The Sharks line-up doesn't look that shabby either, except there is little experience in the front row

1. Pat Cielliers
2. Craig Burden
3. Weihan Herbst
4. Steven Sykes/ Ross Skeate
5. Allistair Hargreaves/ Ross Skeate
6. Jacques Botes
7. Jean Deysel
8. Willem Alberts

9. Rory Kocket
10. Pat Lambie/ Steven Meyer
11. Lwazi Mvovo
12. Riaan Swanepoel
13. Lionel Mapoe (if Steve-o is right)
14. Ndungane
15. Stefan Terblanche

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Cheetahs and Sharks will probably have it all their way while the Boks are playing Trinations rugby.

The Bulls will only need to qualify for the play-offs and here's hoping the Stormers can emulate them..

PROOOOOOOOOOOOOOVINCE!

 

[User1245]

You know that Terblanche won the CC with the Sharks in 2008 right? Man, he was the best man on the pitch in the final!

You right aye, he was there, I even remember him getting MotM over Pienaar in that game. Deserved it.

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

I might be from Holland but I am a big Sharks fan and know a little about them the last 3 years hehe

 

[Feicarsinn]

Who the hell voted for the Pumas? We got a closet Puma fan around :lol:

The Sharks have a very good chance this year, we need to get as much wins (of course) and especially bonus points as possible while the Boks from the other teams are playing in the Tri-Nations.
We still got JP Pietersen, Jean Deysel and Adi Jacobs coming back from injury, so depth is our strong point this season. Would also like to see Terblanche finally get a CC win with us before he retires.

Sorry, I was the first to vote Puma. They're ace.

 

[Seaton]

My prediction has swung in favor to the Sharks, following the 'Boks will be rested announcement'

@ Ezequiel

Do you have access to the CC in Holland?

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

Streams dude! It's not officially on tv but you can find everything on the internet. You just have to know where to look

All the rugby unfortunately I have to watch on my laptop but it's better than nothing right?

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

Well, we've had 3 weeks of Currie Cup rugby with shocking wins by Griquas over the Sharks in week 1 and last friday a 2 point win with a last-ditch effort try against the Bulls.

Any ideas what will happen next? At this stage it still looks like Sharks, WP, Bulls and Cheetahs will make it to the play-offs. There might be a small chance the Griquas will make it though.

Sharks lost the first match, getting 2 bonus points though. The second match was won against rivals Bulls with 4 tries which meant another bonus point. Yesterday again a win with 4 tries.

WP beat Cheetahs with only one try, beat the Lions 32-0 but only 3 tries and this weekend they beat the Leopards finally getting a bonus point, scoring 6 tries.

The Bulls started like we expected with a 38 - 15 over the Pumas (4 tries), losing against the Sharks 34 - 28 (less than 7 point loss) and again losing against the Cheetahs 25 - 23 (also less than 7 point loss.

These 3 teams will decide who will win it. The way things went now I think the Sharks and WP will make it to the final. The Bulls will have to hope du Preez returns from his surgery soon, otherwise I don't see them beating WP

 

[Seaton]

I really don't think losing to the Griquas, in the first game of the season, with the Sharks missing so many players due to call ups and injuries, whilst the Griquas had no injuries to frist team players, is really that bad. In fact getting 2 points is quite a good result.
Frankly I loved that result thinking about it. I really want the Griquas to do well, in order to break the 'big five' monopoly. They had an off game against the Lions but still managed to beat them.

With the only Bulls Boks set to return being Potgeiter, Hougaard, Ralepelle, van de Merwe and Kirchner, and then only for the last few games, I really do believe they face the risk of not reaching the semis, as opposed to hoping they won't.
The only games they are semi assured of winning are those against the Pumas, Leopards and possibly Lions, if I were a Bull supporter I would be dreading the fixtures in Bloem and Cape Town.

The Sharks still have Deysel, Mapoe, Alberts (fully), Bismarck and Mostert to return from injury. With the likes of Beast, Kankowski, Pienaar and Jannie having not played enough recently to need a Springbok 'rest camp'.
WP will not get the likes of Fourie, Habana, de Villiers and possibly Bekker back until the semis, due to the 'rest camp'.
The Cheetahs will probably only lose Juan Smith to the camp, meaning they could get up a head of steam going to the play-offs.
The Griquas have very little depth, and the loss of one of Naas Olivier, barry Geel, Sarel Pretorius, Riaan Viljoen or even Bjorn Basson (sp.) could spell the end of their challenge. Dawie Theron has said the Griquas aim is not to lose at home, and if they are really going to stick to that, they should see off at least one of the teams between the Cheetahs, WP and the Bulls.

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

Well, so far it has been a very entertaining Currie Cup with shocking wins for the Cheetahs over the Bulls and the Griquas over the Sharks.

Very interesting to see how the Bulls will manage this shocking 2 losses in a row.