All eyes will be on Kempton Park and Welkom at 3pm on Saturday (before the focus shifts to Mbombela and the Springboks at 5:10pm) when the Carling Currie Cup First Division semifinals take place on the East Rand and the Northern Free State.
The unbeaten and table-topping Valke host the fourth-placed Leopards at the Barnard Stadium, while the NovaVit Griffons, second on the log, take on the third-placed Eastern Province at the Down Touch Investments Stadium.
The home teams should go into the playoffs as favourites judging by recent results between the sides, but stranger things have happened in the past.
The Valke beat the Leopards by 50-24 when the two teams clashed in the second round a few weeks ago, which was their seventh consecutive win over the team from North West province.
The Leopards’ last victory over the Valke was more than three years ago, on 7 May 2022, by 22-15, but since then the East Randers have been in control of this fixture.
Ironically, the second round was also the last time the Griffons and EP clashed in the First Division this season, with the men from the Northern Free State winning by 66-32.
However, the Elephants beat the Griffons earlier this year in the SA Cup, when they won this clash by 20-14 at home in Gqeberha, but that was their only victory in the last eight encounters between the sides.
EP will do well to keep an eye out for the two top scorers from the Griffons, Andrew Kota (most points with 89) and Willem van den Hever (most tries with 11).
The Elephants’ Rodney Damons has scored the second most tries this season, with six five pointers.
Quan Eymann of the Griffons and the Valke’s Ezrick Alexander are among a group of players next on the try-scorers list, with five tries each this season.
Match information – Semifinals:
Valke v Leopards
Date: Saturday, 19 July
Venue: Barnard Stadium, Kempton Park
Kick-off: 3pm
Referee: Jonathan Lottering
Broadcast: SuperSport channel 247
Novavit Griffons v Eastern Province
Date: Saturday, 19 July
Venue: Down Touch Investment Stadium, Welkom
Kick-off: 3pm
Referee: Hanru van Rooyen
Broadcast: SuperSport channel 245
If the scores are level after the completion of the playing time, the team to proceed to the final of the competition will be determined as follows:
The team to have scored the greatest number of points after the completion of extra time, and if the scores are still level;
The team to have scored the greatest number of tries after playing time and extra time, and if still level;
The team to have achieved the higher log position after the completion of the group stage matches.
