The Griquas say they’re hoping to keep the winning momentum with a win against the Western Province (WP) this weekend. The Peacocks take on WP in a Currie Cup clash on Friday.
The boys from the Cape will want to exact revenge on the Griquas – who beat them twice during last year’s Currie Cup campaign. The Griquas are currently 4th on the log board and the Western Province 6th.
The Griquas are once again in the rebuilding phase. It’s a relatively young team with only three players remaining from the team that last battled the Western Province in last season’s Currie Cup.
But the young team has had some success so far this season. They beat the Pumas 41 – 20 in a spirited showing just two weeks ago.
“After the Pumas game, we really wanted to play the next week build on that momentum. So we had a bit of a break. We gave the players some time off and preparation has gone really well this week. For us it’s about improving and getting to know each other better every week. So far we’ve improved every single match,” says Pieter Bergh, the Griquas coach.
However, the players feel the two-week downtime between games allows them to rest and recuperate. Meanwhile, the inclement weather in Kimberley is proving the perfect training conditions for what the weatherman predicts will be a wet weekend.
“Playing Province here is always a big game. They usually show up with quite a few people. We know it’s going to be a wet game so we’re just trying to get our details in and out as sufficient as possible,” says Janco Uys The Griquas player.
“We obviously have as to wet or dry weather, we prepared for both. Obviously, it changes a lot once it becomes wet it becomes tighter and we used more forwards than we would,” adds another player Raegan Oranje.
The Griquas stalwart, Jonathan Franke makes his return to the starting 15 for the first time this season. He is among several other injuries related changes to the line-up.
Neil Otto takes the captain armband with Ruan Steenkamp out for three months due to a knee injury.
