Currie Cup preview: WP face Bok-laden Bulls, Lions out for revenge

The 2022 Currie Cup continues with a short turnaround as three matches take centre stage on Wednesday.

In arguable the day’s headlining game the Bulls travel to Cape Town to take on Western Province, the Lions host the Pumas at Ellis Park and the Sharks open their campaign with a home encounter against the Griquas.

The Bulls and Western Province match sees the two sides that started their campaigns with bonus point wins, over the Pumas and Lions respectively, front up against each other.

They both feature a sprinkling of experience across their teams and will be evenly matched, even though the team from Pretoria have included four Springboks in their starting XV, in what should be a cracking encounter that either side could win.

ALSO READ: New allegiances: Gert Smal returns to Cape Town with Bulls

An interesting clash sees the Lions take on the Pumas in what will be an important encounter for both teams.

No side wants to lose their first two games of the competition, which will give them plenty of motivation, while that will be even more so for the Lions who face a bye in the next round of matches and won’t be in action again until late February.

Last season the Pumas had the Lions’ number, winning both of their encounters home and away, so the Lions will also be eager to rectify that this time round.

“The Pumas have a quality side, they have a quality coaching staff and are very well balanced. So we are expecting a very physical battle,” said Lions assistant coach Wessel Roux.

“They have named a strong side with a physical pack, so we are expecting a very tough game.”

The Lions have also made nine changes to their match 23 that took on Western Province.

“We have a couple of forced changes through injury, we have four guys coming down from the URC training squad who come straight in and then we have a few rotational changes, so that is why the team is so different,” explained Roux.

In the other match the Sharks start off their campaign against the Griquas.

The home side showed their impressive depth by naming a strong side featuring a lot of experience and the Griquas will find the going tough as they look to try bounce back from their opening loss against the Cheetahs.

Kick off times

Lions v Pumas – 3:30pm

Sharks v Griquas – 5:45pm

Western Province v Bulls – 8pm