Big teams to clash in the Currie Cup semi-finals

Xerox Golden Lions will have the backing of their home crowd when they play in the Currie Cup semi-finals against Tafel Lager Griquas.

The match will take place at Emirates Airlines Park on August 31 at 2pm.

Gates will open at 9am for primary school matches and at 11am the Xerox Golden Lions women’s outfit will take on Limpopo Blue Bulls to vie for another final in the B Division.

“There will be pressure on us as I think they (Griquas) have a score to settle,” said head coach Cash van Rooyen.

“We have prepared for all kinds of encounters as we don’t know what they will bring to us on the day.”

“It will be nice to win my second Currie Cup, if we manage to beat Griquas and go through to the finals,” said captain Ross Cronje.

“There aren’t a lot of players in South Africa and Springboks who can say they have won a Currie Cup.”

It will be a case of all or nothing for the four teams in the Currie Cup semi-finals on Saturday, with final berths at stake and an invaluable home final for one of the teams.

Log leaders, the Toyota Free State Cheetahs, are hosting the Cell C Sharks in another match at Toyota Stadium in Bloemfontein at 5pm.

A victory for the Toyota Free State Cheetahs would guarantee them a home final in Bloemfontein on September 7, as they finished the pool stages as the top team on points difference. A defeat for the Free Staters could see either the Xerox Golden Lions or Tafel Lager Griquas secure a home final.

The match in Johannesburg will mark the second week in a row where the Xerox Golden Lions and Tafel Lager Griquas meet after they crossed paths in the final round in Kimberley last week.

Judging by the close result where the Jozi outfit won 27-26, it is expected to be an intense match.

The last time Tafel Lager Griquas played in the Currie Cup final was back in 1970 and they won that match 11-9 against the Vodacom Blue Bulls (then known as Northern Transvaal). This is expected to be a huge motivational force for the team going into the clash.

Meanwhile, the home side will be hunting their first final appearance since 2015.

To do that, the men from Jozi will have to overturn their home-ground odds.

The Xerox Golden Lions have won only one of their three games at Emirates Airline Park this season, which will propel them to put up a good show in front of their home crowd, but Tafel Lager Griquas will have enough motivation of their own as their last Currie Cup victory in Johannesburg was in 2012.

Meanwhile, the margins between the teams on attack and defence this season has been small, with the Gauteng outfit having scored only two tries more and conceding two points fewer in the pool stages, and that points to an epic clash.

The Xerox Golden Lions named an identical match-day squad to last week for the clash, while Tafel Lager Griquas made three personnel changes to their starting team with Khwezi Mona (prop), Zandre Jordaan (No.8) and Christiaan Meyer (scrum half) taking over from Mox Mxoli, Neill Jordaan and Chriswill September, who have all been named among the replacements.

The match will mark special milestones in the careers of Xerox Golden Lions captain and scrum half Ross Cronje, and Marnus Schoeman (flanker), as both will earn their 70th Currie Cup caps.

In Bloemfontein, the Toyota Free State Cheetahs will go in search of their first final berth since 2016, while defending champions, the Cell C Sharks, will have their sights on their third consecutive appearance in the final when the teams meet in their semi-final.

The last time they crossed paths, the Cell C Sharks won by a narrow seven points in Durban. Interestingly, the KwaZulu-Natalians last suffered a defeat against the Toyota Free State Cheetahs in Bloemfontein in 2013, and while this is expected to serve as inspiration for the visitors, it will also fuel the Free Staters’ motivation to win.

The hosts have been more effective on attack this season, with 40 tries scored to 26 by the Cell C Sharks, but they have been fairly closely matched on defence, with the home side conceding 24 points fewer in their six matches this season.

The Toyota Free State Cheetahs made three changes and one positional switch to the side that defeated DHL Western Province last week, with Dries Swanepoel (centre), Erich de Jager and Ox Nche (both props) earning starts, while William Small-Smith moved from centre to the right wing.

Cell C Sharks coach Sean Everitt made only one change to his squad, with experienced fly half Curwin Bosch returning from injury. This sees him take over from Henry Chamberlain, who drops out of the match-day squad.