Currie Cup · Round 2
Griquas
Bulls
Suzuki Stadium, Kimberley
Championship Standings
Two winless sides sit at the foot of the table, and one of them will still be there on Sunday morning. Griquas — the reigning champions — banked a losing bonus point from their 25–19 defeat in Cape Town and sit 7th; the Bulls XV, beaten 24–10 in the Wellington mud, are the only side yet to register a point. The Cheetahs have already broken clear at the top after Friday's 43–21 win over the Sharks XV, so this is not a game either of these two can afford to lose twice over.
| Pos | Team | P | W | L | PD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Cheetahs | 2 | 2 | 0 | +24 | 9 |
| 2 |  Sharks XV | 2 | 1 | 1 | -20 | 5 |
| 3 |  Boland Cavaliers | 1 | 1 | 0 | +14 | 4 |
| 4 |  Stormers | 1 | 1 | 0 | +6 | 4 |
| 5 |  Lions | 1 | 0 | 1 | -2 | 2 |
| 6 |  Pumas | 1 | 0 | 1 | -2 | 2 |
| 7 | Griquas | 1 | 0 | 1 | -6 | 1 |
| 8 | Bulls | 1 | 0 | 1 | -14 | 0 |
Griquas
W3, L2The title defence opened with a gut-punch: a last-minute Stormers XXIII score in Cape Town turned a winnable game into a 25–19 defeat, though Griquas at least walked away with a losing bonus point. Look past that one result and this is still a side that won three of its last four in 2025 — including a 25–5 semi-final demolition of the Cheetahs and the 27–25 final at Ellis Park that George Whitehead settled with the last kick. Pieter Bergh has named essentially that title-winning spine again, so the machinery is intact. What's missing is the first win, and Kimberley is the obvious place to find it.
Bulls
W2, L3The Bulls XV opened 2026 with the kind of performance that has defined this development side for two seasons: 24–10 down in wet, muddy Wellington, ten points and no answers once the game got attritional. That followed a pre-season shootout against Namibia they edged 50–47 — 97 points in a warm-up tells you plenty about how loosely this group defends. Rewind to 2025 and the pattern repeats: 64–0 and 48–23 wins in one breath, 5–44 and 21–42 hammerings in the next. Their last two visits to a Griquas fixture ended 21–42 and, in Wellington-style conditions, they simply got out-worked.
Head-to-Head Record
6 – 0 – 20
Griquas wins · Draws · Bulls wins (last 26 completed meetings since 2010)
Griquas (6)On raw history this is a Bulls fixture and it isn't close — 20 wins from the last 26 completed meetings, including 57–20, 52–10 and 40–3 routs. But the ledger is misleading in an important way: most of that record belongs to full Blue Bulls first teams, whereas the modern Currie Cup Bulls are a development/second-string outfit. Since that shift, Griquas have taken three of the last five, and the most recent meeting was a 42–21 Griquas win at Loftus in August 2025. The one genuine warning sign for the hosts is venue: Griquas have beaten the Bulls in Kimberley just three times in their last ten home meetings, the last of those all the way back in May 2016.
Recent Results
| Date | Competition | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 2025 | Currie Cup | Bulls 21–42 Griquas |
| Aug 2024 | Currie Cup | Bulls 47–24 Griquas |
| May 2023 | Currie Cup | Griquas 20–40 Bulls |
| Apr 2023 | Currie Cup | Bulls 40–3 Griquas |
| Jun 2022 | Currie Cup | Bulls 19–30 Griquas |
| May 2022 | Currie Cup | Bulls 48–38 Griquas |
Average score in the last 6 meetings: Bulls 36 – Griquas 26 across the last six meetings — but note that only one of those six was played in Kimberley, and Griquas won the most recent by 21 points in Pretoria.
Extended Form
Griquas7W, 3L (last 12 months)
A 5–2 regular season in the 2025 Currie Cup (wins over Boland 48–39, Western Province 47–17, the Sharks XV 26–17, the Bulls 42–21 and the Cheetahs 40–10; losses to the Pumas 28–49 and the Lions 7–37), then a 25–5 semi-final win over the Cheetahs and the 27–25 final victory at Ellis Park — Griquas' first Currie Cup title since 1970. The 2026 campaign began with a 25–19 loss to the Stormers XXIII in Cape Town.
Champions with continuity: Bergh, contracted through 2029, has kept the core of the title XV together, and 13 of the side that won at Ellis Park are in the matchday 23 here. The 2025 evidence says they travel well and win tight games — five of their ten matches were decided by eight points or fewer and they won four of them. Round 1 was the exception, not a collapse; a last-minute score, a bonus point, and a home game to fix it.
Bulls4W, 5L (last 12 months)
The 2025 Currie Cup went 3–4 — wins over Western Province (48–23), the Sharks XV (64–0) and the Cheetahs (35–31); losses to the Pumas (7–41), Boland (20–28), Griquas (21–42) and the Lions (5–44). A 50–47 pre-season win over Namibia in July 2026 preceded the 24–10 Round 1 defeat in Wellington.
The Currie Cup Bulls are a rebuilt development group every winter, and 2026's edition is younger than most — two Currie Cup debutants on the bench and two players making first starts in this XV alone. The ceiling is high because the Loftus pipeline is the best in the country: Nama Xaba, Sintu Manjezi and Dylan Smith bring genuine senior mileage, and Junior World Champion Thomas Beling is a proper prospect. The floor is the problem. This group has conceded 40-plus four times in nine months and lost the physical exchanges in Round 1.
Griquas XV
Pieter Bergh keeps faith with the title-winning spine: George Whitehead again pulls the strings at flyhalf with Bobby Alexander inside him, and the back three of Cameron Hufke, Dylan Maart and Gurshwin Wehr is unchanged from the group that lifted the trophy. Albert Liebenberg captains from lock, with Carl Els at No 8 and Lourens Oosthuizen shifting to the blindside. Final-winning hooker Janco Uys and prop Eddie Davids drop to a strong bench alongside scrumhalf Caleb Abrahams, giving Bergh a title-tested finishing eight.
Bulls XV
Nama Xaba captains from the blindside in a side stacked with first-timers. Scrumhalf Neil le Roux and loose forward Thomas Beling — fresh from helping the Junior Springboks win the World Rugby U20 Championship — are in line for Currie Cup debuts off the bench, while prop Dian Coetzee and flanker Cephas van Biljon make their first Currie Cup starts. The experience sits in the tight five, where Springbok-capped loosehead Dylan Smith packs down alongside Sintu Manjezi and Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg, with Brooklyn Newman and Keagan Johannes at halfback.
Key Matchups
Everything funnels through the No 10 channel. George Whitehead is the most decorated player on the field and the reason Griquas own a trophy — his boot won the 2025 final with the last kick, and his game management is precisely what punishes a young side for every penalty and every wrong exit. Against him, Keagan Johannes runs a backline with a debutant halfback in reserve. The Bulls' route in is the tight five, where Dylan Smith, Sintu Manjezi and Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg give them genuine URC-grade set-piece muscle against a Griquas front row that is workmanlike rather than fearsome — if they win scrum penalties and squeeze the lineout, Kimberley gets nervous quickly. But Griquas' loose trio of Oosthuizen, de Witt and Els is a settled title-winning unit, and Round 1 showed this Bulls pack losing the breakdown battle to a smaller Boland eight. Win the collisions and Griquas' back three of Wehr, Maart and Hufke will find space against a defence that shipped 47 to Namibia a fortnight ago.
Match Forecast
The scorecard lands at +9 and the drivers are the obvious ones: home advantage (+3), form (+3) and the two dimensions where Griquas' selection tells — squad strength (+2) and backline quality (+2). Bergh has named 13 of the 23 that won at Ellis Park, with George Whitehead running the game and a loose trio that has played together all year, against a Bulls XV deliberately building for the future with two debutants and two first-time starters. Round 1 exposed the visitors' weakness precisely: out-worked 24–10 by Boland in conditions that demanded graft. Griquas by double figures is the honest call.
Two things could yet flip it. The first is the scrum — Dylan Smith, Sintu Manjezi and Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg are a heavier, more decorated tight five than anything Griquas put in front of them, and if the Bulls turn that into penalties and territory, Whitehead never gets the front-foot ball he needs. The second is the venue's odd history: for all the champions' aura, Griquas have beaten the Bulls in Kimberley only three times in ten home meetings, and not since 2016. This Bulls group also carries real strike out wide, and a loose, high-tempo Kimberley evening suits them far better than the Wellington swamp did. But a settled champion side at home against the only pointless team in the competition is a bet worth making.
Griquas to finally open their account — Whitehead's control and a settled title-winning spine should be too much for a young Bulls XV, even with the visitors owning the scrum.
The last meeting between these sides: Griquas won by 21 points at Loftus Versfeld in August 2025 on their way to the title.
Griquas have beaten the Bulls in Kimberley just three times in their last ten home meetings — the most recent a 39–38 thriller in May 2016.
The Bulls lead the last 26 completed meetings 20–6, though most of that record belongs to full Blue Bulls first teams rather than the current development side.
The Bulls XV are the only side in the 2026 Premier Division yet to register a log point after their 24–10 defeat in Wellington.
Bulls bench loose forward Thomas Beling is in line for his Currie Cup debut days after helping the Junior Springboks lift the World Rugby U20 Championship.
George Whitehead, again at flyhalf here, won the 2025 Currie Cup final 27–25 at Ellis Park with the last kick of the game — Griquas' first title in 55 years.