The Suzuki Griquas coach, Pieter Bergh, was full of praise for his team and their character after they managed to win the inaugural SA Cup on Saturday in Kimberley.

The Griquas convincingly beat the Pumas 46-24 at the Suzuki Stadium in the final to end their campaign unbeaten and take some tremendous momentum into the upcoming Currie Cup.

The Griquas raced to a 29-0 lead in the first half, but held on to fend off a determined Pumas outfit.

Gustav du Rand - Morgan Piek

Bergh told OFM Sport his team showed a lot of character especially they closed the final with a man down, while others started to cramp.

“People don't understand that we have to play with 14-men for the last 17 minutes because we used all of our substitutions and then Carl Els got injured,” said Bergh.

“We couldn't put someone on for him, so we had to play the last ten minutes with 14-men.

“George Whitehead and a lot of the other players started to cramp. The guys really showed a lot of character to pull it through in the end.”

Thomas Bursey - Morgan Piek

The Griquas will have a mini-break of two weeks before assembling to start preparing for the Currie Cup. As fate would have it, the Peacock Blues will play against the Pumas in Kimberley in the first round of the competition.

Bergh added that while they have their opponent from the Lowveld’s number, they will have to adapt their game going forward.

“They showed by coming back from 29-0 down that they are a good team and when you take your foot off the pedal, they can hurt you,” Bergh added.

“They will learn from this and we will have too as well. There is a lot of stuff that happened in the first half because of the fact that we played against each other three weeks ago. With a lot of the tactical stuff, I felt it was because the teams targeted each other there.

“So we're going to have to be clever about how we go into that first game.”

The first round of the Currie Cup is set to be played on the weekend of 5 July, however, SA Rugby are yet to confirm the fixtures.

Morgan Piek OFM Sport