Cape Town — Even if the two sides do not want to admit it outright, the Currie Cup derby on Saturday between Western Province and the Blue Bulls in Cape Town (kickoff), can be a season-defining one for their respective United Rugby Championship (URC) campaigns.
While both teams require a victory to stay among the top four on the log in the domestic competition, it will be equally, or even more important for the sides to get that psychological blow in ahead of the senior North-South derby in the quarter-finals of the URC next weekend.
Both Currie Cup teams are hoping for a win, and to score the psychological edge over their opponents, to stay in or close to the top four.
Just so that they'll be in a good position to push for a home semi-final and possible home final once their URC stars return when the international club competition comes to an end.
That's the plan for the Western Province team at least, playing with a mixed squad this entire Currie Cup campaign as the URC team dictates which players will be left over on a specific weekend.
So far, only a handful of URC players had a berth in the Currie Cup for the Cape side, while senior Springboks will only have a possible feature late in the competition.
Province is happy to continue plowing with their younger calves and after they've beaten a full-strength Blue Bulls side earlier this year at Loftus, they will want to emulate that to lay the platform for what's to come next weekend.
But, they also know that it is easier said than done.
They have been underperforming according to the standards that were set by the players.
They've started the Currie Cup playing rugby reminiscent of how the Stormers won the URC last year and it looked promising. But a string of results against them, where they just could not get the win after being in good positions, have halted the WP's momentum.
This Blue Bulls game can provide them that chance to bag a win again but Province is expecting a Pretoria side out for vengeance. Especially after a strong URC team was humiliated at Loftus Versfeld by WP youngsters in the second round of the competition.
That loss continued a bad run of form for the Pretoria side where they picked up a 10-game losing streak across all competitions.
But the Bulls are on the rise again after a couple of good victories that boosted their confidence. And with WP on a bad run of form lately, it can provide the perfect opportunity for the visitors to exploit to give Province's Currie Cup title ambitions a big knock.
If the Bulls do land the first blow by winning the first derby, an optimistic URC side will pitch up next weekend looking to right the wrongs of last year's final and get another one over their coach's nemesis.
IOL Sport