Sharks Book Top Spot as Currie Cup Season Comes to an End

This weekend will see the culmination of a Currie Cup season that has been the closest in years. It is also a replay of all the semifinals from last season. The only difference is that the Sharks ended first this year, and the Bulls second on the log.

Saturday 14H30 will see the Sharks take on the Lions at Kings Park, with Marc Lawrence taking charge of the game. The Blue Bulls will host the Cheetahs at Loftus, with Craig Joubert taking charge up in P Town at 17H00. These are going to be very intense and close games with maybe a 10-point spread in each game.

I don’t see the Cheetahs or Lions having the firepower to go through and the final seems destined for Kings Park, with a repeat of last year's Super 14 final. Hopefully this time the Sharks will end up victorious, but that is still three weeks away.

The rugby has been of the highest quality, and hopefully it will stay this way until the season is complete.

Results from this weekend are as follows:

Blue Bulls downed the Valke 22-20, but to be fair they did play their B side. Free State beat the plucky wine farmers from the Boland 50-40 in a very exciting game. A full-strength Sharks demolished the Onion Farmers from Kimberly 66-12.

Western Problems were always fighting a losing battle and would have to have played exceptional rugby to qualify for the semis. However, the Lions never allowed them to and although they lost 14-6 to Province they did enough to qualify.

After a wonderful exhibition of football when Arsenal thumped FC Porto 4-0, they were lucky to get a point against Sunderland with a 1-1 draw. Man United also left in late to get a 2-0 win away to Blackburn Rover.

The comeback of the weekend was by Liverpool who were 2-0 down against the new richest soccer club in the world, Manchester City, and came back to win 3-2. Chelsea was too strong for Aston Villa, beating them 2-0. Newcastle and Everton got vital points by drawing 2-2, but Spurs stumbled again losing to giant killers Hull 1-0 at home.

Chelsea and Liverpool are still joint top leaders, but Hull has moved into third, three points behind the leaders. Spurs are at the bottom of the log with two points; Stoke has four and Newcastle on five. It would be very sad to see Spurs and Newcastle relegated if they carry on in this form.

On the local seen (and local is lekker), the PSL is also very close at the top. Defending champions Super Port beat Royal Zulus 2-1 away. The Birds downed the Chiefs 2-0, Sundowns were mauled 4-2 at home to Golden Arrows, Pirates drew with Santos 1-1, and in the local derby Maritzburg United beat Amazulu 2-1 at home. (Casey, you and I were both wrong.)

The log is still pretty close at the top, with Super Sport and The Clever Boys on top with 10 points and PMB United and Arrows in second place on eight points. Chiefs, Pirates, and Celtic make up the bottom three of log. This could be a very rocky season for the two biggest clubs in Africa.

The Super Sport four-day cricket championship got off this weekend. Unfortunately for the Dolphins, the weather intervened and prevented a probable victory over the Titans. The Eagles beat the Cobras in Kimberly and the Lions beat the Warriors at the Wanders.

Sehwag of India has put his you know what on the line by claiming that India will beat Australia 3-1 in their upcoming test series. Brave words from the opening batsman! It will be a very interesting series and I am certainly looking forward to watching it.

Just some feedback from me on the first cricket game in years last weekend playing for UKZN against a loaded team of Tophem. Batting first, Tophem made 237 of 30 overs, playing five of their Premier players, including two opening bowlers. The task seemed impossible for the plucky Varsity fourth side that was still unbeaten at the time.

However, after getting off to a steady start losing our opener to a Hail Mary of a catch by the keeper, all hell broke lose. Calvin scored 50 off 50 and Lutz blazed an unbeaten 148 off 86 balls, including a second 50 off 18 balls to reach his 100 off 68 balls.

On the South African rally scene, it is with sadness that I must report that Paul Pfeiffer died in the Western Cape Blue Crane Rally. The reports that have come through say that he hit a ditch and put his car into a dam.

The co-driver was rescued, but the rescuers were not able to retrieve Paul. When they did find him he had no pulse and was pronounced DOA at hospital. In the Motor GP Casey Stoner beat new world champion Valentino Rossi by six seconds in his home GP at Philip Island in Australia.

Anyway, until next week, enjoy the sport and stay fit.

I have a request from you avid readers. Please can you send me through an English XI soccer team from the premiership? The players do not have to be English, and no they cannot all come from Man U or Liverpool. I would be interested to see who comes up with the best team.

ONETIME

Think beyond the horizon and you will find success!