Currie Cup wrap: Wins for Bulls and Sharks

In his first game in charge of the Bulls Currie Cup side, coach Jake White wasted no time in rolling out the big guns to blow the Griquas away. Captained by the tireless Ruan Nortje, the likes of Springboks Canan Moodie, Kurt-Lee Arendse and Embrose Papier ran riot among the Griquas' defence, running in six tries in a 40-3 victory at Loftus Versveld.

Papier, who delivered a man-of-the-match performance, ran the Bulls' backline like a well-oiled machine, also scoring a try to take the Bulls into the break 26-3 up.

Arendse later set up David Kriel for a try, the winger™s second assist of the evening, as they recorded their first Currie Cup win in five attempts this season.

Later in the evening, Kings Park hosted the Sharks, who were lucky to come away 19-12 winners over the table-topping Pumas.

The Durban franchise dominated the opening stanza, showing great energy on attack to score a team try via scrumhalf Tiaan Fourie in the ninth minute.

From there, it was the metronomic boot of flyhalf Fred Zeilinga that took advantage of an error-strewn half by the visitors, who wnet into the shed 16-0 down.

But in a chaotic few minutes early in the second half, the Sharks were reduced to 13 men and had a penalty try awarded against them. Dian Bleuler was given a yellow card for collapsing the maul on the way to the try line, while Corne Rahl was shown a red card for head-on-head contact in the same movement.

This filled the Pumas with a renewed desire, scoring another try via their maul to reduce the deficit to seven points.

The Sharks would show stoic defense to grind out an important win that keeps them in the top four in the standings.