OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 10.00pm.
DEFENDING champions Blue Bulls ripped the chase wide open in the Currie Cup when they trounced Free State 38-17 in a weekend of topsy-turvy results.
The Natal Sharks, however, escaped a possible upset defeat at the hands of Boland in the southern wine-farming town of Wellington to claim the log-leadership.
The Sharks, with 30 points, now head a seven-pronged race to the September semifinals comprising Free State with 28 points, the Lions and Mpumalanga (27 each), the Bulls and South Western Districts (25 each) and the Falcons (22).
It was the boot of Henry Honiball that earned Natal their 34-28 victory over Boland.
Both sides dotted down four times, but the Springbok halfback goaled all four tries and two penalties to secure a maximum five-point haul for the Sharks to overtake Free State in the log-standings.
The Blue Bulls, shocked by Border on Tuesday, were not expected to give the Free State’s Cheetahs many problems in central Bloemfontein on Saturday.
But a rejuvenated Bulls side beat them at their own running game to prevent the home team from recapturing the number one log spot.
Of relief to Springbok fans in the wake of South Africa’s 32-6 drubbing by Australia were the fine displays by Bulls scrumhalf Joost van der Westhuizen, flyhalf Franco Smith and flanker Ruben Kruger at the weekend.
With Free State failing to earn any log points, South Western Districts had the chance to climb to second place when they took on Border’s Bulldogs in coastal East London in Sunday’s only match. But SWD stumbled into a spirited Border XV and slid to a 23-18 defeat — tumbling from third place to sixth.
In the weekend’s other upset, Eastern Province stunned Griquas 15-13 in the central town of Kimberley.
A win for the hosts, semi-finalists in 1998, would have kept them in with a shout. Instead their Cup hopes have faded. The Lions maintained their march towards the play-offs with a relatively easy 37-22 win over Western Province in southern Stellenbosch, running in five tries to one.
Province, the 1997 champions and runners-up last year, are now third from bottom, ahead only of Northern Free State and North West, who both lost their home fixtures. — AFP