The Currie Cup Semi-finalists have been confirmed following the last game of the open rounds, the game between the MTN Golden Lions and Vodacom Blue Bulls at Coca-Cola Park, Johannesburg.
Although the watered down Currie Cup, without the Springbok players for most of the season, has clearly lost popularity judging from the low spectator numbers at all the Currie Cup games, the good thing to come from the competition was the levelling of the playing field between the 6 competing sides.
In addition, some bright new future prospects have really come to the fore during the competition, players like Raymond Rhule – speed merchant from the Free State Cheetahs, Scarra Ntubeni – young hooker from Western Province, Ruan Combrinck – winger of the Golden Lions and Marnus Schoeman – flanker from the Griquas.
ABSA Currie Cup Premier Division – Log
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | TF | TA | BPts | Pts |
| 1 | The Sharks | 10 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 292 | 233 | 59 | 32 | 18 | 7 | 35 |
| 2 | MTN Golden Lions | 10 | 6 | 0 | 4 | 285 | 279 | 6 | 26 | 28 | 4 | 28 |
| 3 | DHL Western Province | 10 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 272 | 226 | 46 | 28 | 19 | 5 | 25 |
| 4 | Vodacom Blue Bulls | 10 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 280 | 291 | -11 | 24 | 31 | 3 | 23 |
| 5 | GWK Griquas | 10 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 250 | 313 | -63 | 28 | 35 | 4 | 20 |
| 6 | Toyota Free State Cheetahs | 10 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 268 | 305 | -37 | 26 | 33 | 6 | 18 |
On Friday night The Sharks demolished hopefull’s, GWK Griquas with an emphatic 42 / 3 win and The Sharks accordingly end top of the pops with 35 Log Points.
Despite their loss to the Vodacom Blue Bulls, the MTN Golden Lions end second on the Log with 28 Log Points.
The No 1 and No 2 teams now have the luxury of home semi-finals, the first one happening at Mr Price Kings Park, Durban, on Saturday and the second one at Coca-Cola Park in Johannesburg.
With only 2 games to go on Saturday, any of the remaining 4 Currie Cup sides were still in with a chance to advance through to the semi-finals.
DHL Western Province booked 3rd place and a semi-final against the MTN Golden Lions in Johannesburg when they ran in comfortable winners, by 36 / 15 over the Toyota Free State Cheetahs at Newlands, Cape Town.
That left the last game of the open rounds, to see whether GWK Griquas or the Vodacom Blue Bulls would advance to the semi-finals. After early butterflies and almost stuttering, at one time being down 13 / 3, the Vodacom Blue Bulls rallied and clawed their way back into the lead, with the score 22 / 16 at halftime in favour of the men in blue. It took the Vodacom Blue Bulls to score 5 tries to 2 and an eventual 50 / 29 win against the MTN Golden Lions, to book themselves 4th spot and an away semi-final against the Sharks in Durban.
With the Springboks back, the heat is now firmly on and your gueass is as good as mine who of the 4 sides will play in the final and eventually win the covetted trophy.
Unfortunately, finishing last on the Log has consequences and the Toyota Free State Cheetahs are now left the wooden spoon but even more important they are left the unenviable task to play home and away promotion / relegation games against the EP Kings, winners of the Currie Cup First Division.
The 1st promotion / relegation game is on Friday night at 19:10 in Bloemfontein and the second one a week later in Port Elizabeth.
We partied far too hard last night… eventually arriving home at 05:30 this morning. We ended up at the Blue Diamond Botique Hotel some time after the Afrikaans is Groot show… where all the stars and executive producing crew of the show was booked in. I can confirm that our Afrikaans singing icons know how to jol and know how to rip the poephol out of the chicken completely!
I slept till well after noon, the head complaing about the Red Bull mix in the Jeagie Bombs I consumed…
So, I have not seen the Golden Lions / Blue Bulls match yet, have it recorded on the PVR, and will watch it after the Sunday night movie at my leasure.
Oh, congrats to WP and the Blue Bulls for making the semi’s…. the natural order seems to have been restored somewhat over this weekend.
Commisserations dear Ftee State Cheetahs supporting friends, not nice to end last and to now go and play in Promotion / Relegation matches against the EP Kings. Just do me the favour and beat the EP Kings convincingly to stay in the Premier Division!
Let me put my neck on the line here and suggest that one of the finalists will be WP, just who will they face…Sharks must be favourites BUT hopefully it will be the BLUE BULLS.
Afrikaans singing idols? GBS just partied with Steve Hofmeyer, Amore and Kurt Darren.
Oh, and fcuk the Kings!
3 5 @ Loosehead,
I second that! Hope we have enough fit players left to smash the pretenders. Dunno how one player (Ross Geldenhuys) can scrum well in two consecutive matches vs good scrumming teams like Sharks and Griquas, but then according to Kraplan, they can’t scrum for shit against WP?
I was watching Cornal Hendricks playing for the Blitsbokke, he looks like a useful attacking winger, fast and very strong.
Now we just need a pack that can get enough quality ball to wingers like Jansen, Hendricks, le Roux, and Rhule.
With Coenie apparently exclusively playing TH, it means that Caylib Oosthuisen, and Brummer Badenhorst will hace to scrap it out for the LH position.
Maybe this team can do it?
Caylib Oosthuisen, Strauss, Coenie, Ferreira, Muller, Brüssow, Frans Viljoen, Phillip vd Walt
van Zyl, Watts (till Goosen returns), Rhule, Ebersohn, Sadie, Jansen, le Roux.
Bench: Nyakane, Liebenberg, Landman, Labuschagne, Pretorius, Brummer, Daniller
7 @ Cheetah4eva:
Morning Buddy,
Jeez I feel for you and your team. CC just will never be the same without a Cheetah side in it. There should be 8 teams in the CC to be honest. I know some will never agree, but really we should ADD the Kings into the CC and posibly the Pumas. For me just 6 teams in it don’t make for a good tourney.
When is the relegation match to be played? If this year it is a pity that you don’t have Goosen for this game, he makes such a big difference to your side.
Anyhow good luck to your team. I will support them in the relegation game.
Go Cheetahs!
Well done to my Sharks for topping the Log, though it don’t mean much if we don’t win this week as we saw with Stormers that topped the log in SS.
For now do hope we have good weather for the semi. The weather in Durbs for the last 6 weeks has been dreadful. Rain forecast for the rest of the week as well. Need a dry day and field to take the Bulls on Saturday. If the weather is dry think Sharks will win it.
We will have some of our Boks back too. Beast, Jannie, Alberts, JPP and Lambie that were not in playing in the last game we played Bulls at the Tank in CC. Just a pity we don’t have Bissie, Kanko and Fransie. We still have a excellent side. So really hoping for good weather so we can play our game plan.
GO SHARKS!
9 @ Puma:
Sorry forgot Coetzee to the list of Shark Boks back.
Pity we don’t have Odwa for this game too. As he is one of the best under the high ball that Bulls will be sending our way all game long. Actually Odwa and his twin brother playing for the Bulls are probably two of the very best under the high ball and Basson.
We do have Ludik at the back though that is excellent under the high ball, but would have been good to have Odwa there on the wing too. Mvovo has the speed and also not bad under the high ball, but Odwa is safe as houses there. Pity he picked up a ankle injury.
If the Cheetahs get relegated for the 2013 CC, I have no team to support.
Kings, the Watson’s, no way.
Lions, there is a chance.
Sharks, fans wear shirts with popped collars. [Puma don’t adjust yours]
WP, may as well support the Crusaders.
Bulls, Steve Hofmeyer.
I am fcuked!
Good morning folks…good to see that most Vrystaat supporters survived the weekend…
12 @ Loosehead:
Come on, support the Bulls…. hehehe
9 @ Puma:
It’s bad that you have to hope the weather plays ball, is’nt it! May the best team win on the day.
Oh, and if you read the Article you’ll see when the 2 Promotion / Relegation games are….
4 @ Loosehead:
Was a bloody good cast of singers… and no, Amore and Kurkprop Derm was’nt there….
Here’s a picture of the cast:
14 @ grootblousmile:
Steve Stofseyer. No thanks.
Some of the lady singers are really hot!
GBS, the oke on the far right is Percy Montgomery.
16 @ Loosehead:
Hehehehe
Jak de Priester…. don’t think he can kick…. hahaha
But I bet he can eat Sally Williams Nougat!
7@ Puma,
Thanks Bud, the 1st match is Friday night in Bloem. We should be able to subdue the pretenders from the dark side Puma. As you say, if we had Goosen, we could rest a tad easier, but we don’t. And right now the injuries are derailing us.
Hope Coenie can play, because Ross Geldenhuys is shyte! Though he played ok vs Sharks and Griquas. We are missing Ferreira, WP Nel, Brüssow, Frans Viljoen, Goosen, and van zyl big time!
18 @ Cheetah4eva:Why did Naka keep him on for the last scrum when he obviously in pain?
Any bey on who the ref will be for the 2 games?
19 @ Loosehead:
Jeeez, the way some okes go on, it could be ANY referee and it would still be a problem…. I read Saturday’s game thread…. phweeeew.
Some people should take up being Conspiricy Theorists as a full-time job….
19@ Loosehead,
Search me, Loosehead, didn’t see the incident, as I was blogging on my Tablet at the time. As long as it isn’t Marius Plonker, Kraplan, Japtha or Rashivenga, I will be ok.
20 @ GBS,
If your team gets shafted by these inept officials as often, you will also develop the symptoms lol
21 @ Cheetah4eva:
Your team keeps getting shafted… by your team itself… read Sies Ebersohn, injuries… ect.
Regarding the refs, all of them do make mistakes, that much is a given, but bar Bryce Lawrence I do not think there are too many deliberate farkers out there!
Oh by the way I heard Brycie is retiring very, very soon… but I hear Paddy O’Brian’s son is now a referee (he blew some of the Sevens games this past weekend at the Gold Coast)….. eishhhh
Busy watching the Golden Lions / Blue Bulls match of Saturday night (missed it on Saturday).
What a total dufus Joel Stransky is in the commentator’s booth….. nothing good to say of the Bulls play.
18 @ Cheetah4eva:
Cheetahs have a lot of injuries right now. Pity about that otherwise I think they would have taken the Kings with ease. Still think your team should win it. Really hope they do.
13 @ grootblousmile:
You know well I hardly read any articles. Just read the heading if it interests me I read further…. 😛
Look if the weather is wet or dry Sharks have a good chance to beat the Bulls. However, if it is wet then the Bulls have a chance to beat us, but if it is dry no way will Bulls beat the Sharks not with their game plan..hehe. There now I have confused you hey!!… 🙂
Bekker and Liebenberg are out for the semi with injuries.
Van Rensburg and probably Mapoe out of the semi with injuries
Odwa out with a ankle injury.
Looks like Bulls are the only team to get away without any injuries this past weekend.
@ grootblousmile:
Ek is nog bekommerd oor die Bulls se vedediging. Die lyn is nog baie staggered en die Lions het heeltemal te veel momentum gekry. Ek weet nie of hierdie nuwe tegniek om die speler te probeer ophou regtig werk nie. Dink hulle moet dit meer selektief doen.
Ek dink ook on die game het Butch baie beter gespeel as Jantjies.
25 @ Puma:
So, we don’t need to write Articles anymore.. just put a nice heading, one sentence… and then blah, blah, blah…
Sharks definately have the edge for the semi…. but it’s a funny shaped ball… and guts and glory will prevail.
27 @ leon:
Janee, die Bulle nog nie naby aan die voltooide artikel nie. Bulle se verdediging pla my ook, om die waarheid te sê! Ek stem ook saam, dit werk selde om ‘n maul op te hou en sodoende omkeer balbesit te kry… sal graag meer statestiek daaroor wil sien…. ek sien die All Blacks doen dit nogal baie.
@ grootblousmile:
Dit lyk of die All Blacks die bal draer baie goed isoleer. Hulle het altyd spelers in die pad van die baldraer se ondersteuning. Hulle doen dit veral teen ander span se agterspelers.
So, Lions – Bulls final at the Park?
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