Road To The 2018 Currie Cup Semi-Finals

The Currie Cup, which is one of the oldest rugby competitions in the world, heads into the semi-final stage this weekend, as Western Province and the Sharks host the Blue Bulls and Golden Lions on Saturday.

Let’s take a closer look at how the four teams made it to the knockout stage of South Africa’s premier rugby competition.

Western Province:

Western Province finished top of the log after beating the Blue Bulls 34-7 in a match that got abandoned at half-time due to unsafe weather conditions. The men from the Cape are unbeaten this season and have absolutely dominated every side which has stood in their way. WP have scored 38 tries in the competition and will host the men from Pretoria, which is known as the North-South derby.

Standout Performer: SP Marais – Points: 91 (3 tries, 8 penalty kicks and 26 conversions)

Sharks:

The side from Durban will host the second semi-final on Saturday and the side in black and white will have a host of Springboks at their disposal. The Sharks have only lost once this season which resulted in a 50-28 mauling against Western Province down at Newlands. The coastal side, who finished second on the log, have scored 28 tries in this campaign which is the third highest out of the seven teams.

Standout Performer: Lwazi Mvovo – Points: 15 (3 tries)

Blue Bulls:

The Pretoria based side will have a second crack at Western Province this season as they travel down to Newlands for their knockout game. The Bulls have been largely inconsistent this season and the loss of John Mitchell has not made things any easier for them. They qualified for the playoffs in fourth place but they only managed to win three games during the round robin stage.

Standout Performer: Manie Libbok – Points: 51 (1 try, 4 penalty kicks and 17 conversions)

Golden Lions:

The Lions probably would have preferred to have a home semi-final this season but nevertheless, they did not fare too badly this season, despite losing players to overseas clubs and staff to the national setup. The Johannesburg union lost only two games this season and scored the second highest amount tries in the competition, with 34.

Standout Performer: Hacjivah Dayimani – Points: 30 (6 tries)