The Suzuki Griquas lift the trophy following the SA Cup final match between Griquas and the Airlink Pumas at Suzuki Stadium in 2024. Picture: Danie van der Lith
THE SUZUKI Griquas sizzled during last year’s SA Cup, going through the competition unbeaten on their way to eventually snagging the title.
But the Kimberley team will have to turn up the heat even more in 2025, due to the fact that the challenging teams have marked them as the team to beat.
Speaking of heat, the team has been preparing for the competition in Kimberley’s unrelenting heatwave conditions over the past month. The searing temperatures have made things incredibly uncomfortable for players and coaches alike.
Things will not be much cooler when the SA Cup competition starts on March 7, when the defending champions host the Leopards at Kimberley’s Suzuki Stadium in a match scheduled to kick off at 6.30pm. Mercifully though, the evening temperatures will provide some welcome respite.
— Griquas Rugby (@GriquasRugby) January 16, 2025
Griquas cannot depend on the fact that they are the defending champions and one of the Currie Cup Premier Division teams in the SA Cup. Smaller unions have learnt from last year’s hammerings and have developed and adapted for the 2025 run.
Griquas coach Pieter Bergh was under no illusions about the challenge awaiting the “bigger teams”, especially with seasoned coaches like Alistair Coetzee and Matt Proudfoot taking the reins at Eastern Province and the Leopards, respectively.
Bergh said that he was certain that the smaller unions would have learned the demands on conditioning levels when playing Currie Cup teams and their coaches would have put the work in during the off-season.
For their part, Griquas have been working on their basics, going back to improving their fundamentals ahead of the new campaign. But Bergh said that even more importantly, they had to up their matchday intensity to keep the pressure on their opponents.
He said that his aim with Griquas was to try and play at an intensity and physicality that matches a Currie Cup standard, instead of having his players go into a “sub-standard” SA Cup mode.
After all, rugby is rugby, and if Griquas start their season in a lower gear, they may struggle, as they learned in 2024, to kick on when the demands of the Currie Cup are upon them.
Bergh said that the players have embraced the philosophy and responded brilliantly at training, working very hard on their execution.
For Griqua supporters, this is good news, but for their opponents, they must be wondering what awaits them if Griquas up their game from their 2024 steamroll.
Kimberley rugby fans will get a taste of this renewed intensity and physicality early in March.
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