The Griquas lead the standings in the Currie Cup following a 37-13 win over the Sharks in round one in Durban, and last weeks’ 37-29 victory over the Pumas.

The Cheetahs in their turn claimed a bonus point 43-27 win over the Blue Bulls in Pretoria last week. While the Cheetahs did score six tries at Loftus Versfeld, they did allow the Bulls to sneak for two late tries. Had Manie Libbok put up a better display with the boot, the scoreline would have been a lot tighter.

The Cheetahs display in the set-piece and the physically in the defence was really good and a major positive, however, the Griquas will be a lot more ruthless when it comes to capitalising on mistakes.

During the derby last year the Peacock Blues beat the Cheetahs 52-24 in Kimberley.

The Free State captain, Tian Meyer, told OFM Sport that will the confidence is high, the focus in on their game.

“We happy about the win and the results against the Bulls. Winning away from home is always great, and kicking the season off with the results against the Bulls was also awesome.

“There were a lot of positives to take from the game but we are measuring ourselves by our own standards so that is still a lot we can improve on.

“In saying that it is also great to see that the things that we worked on working, such as the physicality, stopping power and ball in contact.

“The Griquas will be a great challenge and we will get stuck in. The Griquas have a good set-piece and a kicking game, and they do like to use that to pressure teams.

“We will have to handle that, but we will analyse it and see where we can exploit certain things or see what we need to be a lot more aware of, but we will be focusing on improving a lot of our things.”

Saturday’s derby at the Toyota Stadium in Bloemfontein kicks off at 15:00.

@MorganPiek OFM Sport