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The Sharks and Western Province walked away with victories in Saturday's Currie Cup matches, beating the Blue Bulls and Griquas, respectively, in two contrasting clashes. The Sharks extended their lead at the top of the table after beating the Blue Bulls 18-5 in a one-sided match at Kings Park Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The hosts made a near-perfect start when Curwin Bosch's cross-field kick found Sibusiso Nkosi in space on the left flank and the winger dove over for a third-minute try. Bosch, though failed to add the extras from his conversation from out wide. The Sharks looked the more threatening side throughout the opening exchanges and added to the score when the ball was worked out wide and Keegan Daniel, having spotted a gap in the Bulls defense, slid over on the wet pitch for his side's second. This time, Bosch nailed the conversion to give the Sharks a 12-0 lead after 20 minutes. As the first-half progressed, the Bulls grew into the game somewhat, but failed to seriously threaten the Sharks defense. The Bulls finally got on the board 11 minutes into the second-half when Aston Fortuin scooped up a loose ball from broken play and crossed the line to close the gap to seven points, with Bulls flyhalf Handre Pollard narrowly missing the conversion. The Sharks responded quickly after conceding and in the 54th minute extended their lead to 10 points from Bosch landed a well-taken penalty. With the hosts dominating the set-pieces, and the excellent Bosch dictating play throughout, the Bulls failed to make much of an impact on the Sharks defense throughout. The result was then made safe when Bosch's 72nd-minute drop-kick sailed through the posts. At Newlands, Western Province won an entertaining clash against the Griquas 55-27 George Whitehead gave the visitors the early lead with a penalty in the fourth minute, although Province responded almost right away with a three-pointer of their own three minutes later through Damian Willemse. After Whitehead landed with another penalty in the ninth minute, the visitors were the first to cross the try-line when winger Ederies Arendse intercepted Willemse's loose pass to score under the posts. When Whitehead landed with his conversion, the Griquas had opened a 13-3 lead after 13 minutes. Province soon hit back though, with two converted tries in seven minutes - by Cobus Wiese and Chad Solomon - handing the hosts a 17-13 lead after 28 minutes. With the home side enjoying almost 80% of the ball, it was no surprise that the tries continued to come and after Werner Kok dove over twice either side of half-time, WP had a commanding 31-13 lead. Griquas were given a reprieve when Wilco Louw was given a yellow card in the 51st minute, and Renier Botha's converted try saw the gap come down to 11 points. AJ Le Roux's yellow card on the hour mark swung the momentum back towards WP and when Dean Muir scored the hosts' fifth try of the match moments later, the writing was on the wall for the hosts. While Griquas pulled one back through Tertius Kruger late on, tries from Johan du Toit and two from Nicolaas Oosthuizen ensured the hosts ran out comfortable winners.
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