Griquas vs Sharks Prediction & Betting Tips - Currie Cup

Prediction published on 10/07/2024, 09:00  by Devesh Jaganath | Modified on 11/07/2024 at 17:34 in Currie Cup Predictions

Week two of the 2024 Currie Cup season will see the Griquas play host to the Sharks on Friday afternoon. The hosts are currently bottom of Pool B after the first week, while the visitors are third. 

Griquas may have reached the 2022 Currie Cup final and won last season’s SA Cup but they made a poor start to this year’s Currie Cup as they were fairly convincingly beaten 44-24 by last season’s runners-up the Pumas last weekend. 

The Pumas were on the front foot from the off with Eduan Swart opening the scoring inside the first five minutes of the game. Cameron Hufke got Griquas level five minutes later but the hosts struggled to keep up with the men from Mpumalanga, who took a 25-12 lead into the break. 

Griquas did, however, manage to secure a bonus point when Carl Els put Bobby Alexander through for a try one minute from the final whistle. While their performance left significant room for improvement, the hosts will fancy their chances against a fresh-faced Sharks in this one. 

The Peacock Blues beat the Sharks 48-40 at this venue last season. 

When the Sharks lost that match here in Kimberley last season, they had sent out a fairly inexperienced squad. It is a similar situation this season for the Durbanites, with several of their first-team players currently away with the Springboks, who will face Ireland this weekend. 

The lack of experience in the side was evident last week, as the Sharks fell to an opening-day narrow defeat to the Lions at home. The Sharks led 10-8 at the break but were beaten 26-25. 

However, the Durbanites did pick up two bonus points, one for losing by fewer than seven points and the other for scoring four tries.