Eight teams book their place in 2014 Community Cup
College Rovers, Crusaders and Poorte in Pool B.
The South African Rugby Union (SARU) has confirmed that eight teams have qualified for the 2014 Cell C Community Cup.
Despatch (Eastern Province), College Rovers (KwaZulu-Natal), Roodepoort (Golden Lions), Bloemfontein Crusaders (Free State), Brakpan (Valke), Centurion (Blue Bulls), Sishen (Griqualand West) and Ferros (Mpumalanga) have booked their places in next year’s toughest club competition.
Roodepoort first team’s chances in next year’s competition will be all but easy though, as they have been drawn in Pool B along with the 2012 National Club Champions and 2013 runners-up, College Rovers as well as Free State’s top open club, Bloemfontein Crusaders. College Rovers, logically the favourites, recently won their eighth consecutive Moor Cup title.
The other team most likely to qualify in Pool B is Welkom Rovers (Griffons) with the fifth and final team to join the pool being a wild card team.
Roodepoort qualified in the grandest of fashions for the 2014 Community Cup as they went unbeaten to win the Golden Lions trophy. In the 2013 Community Cup they were knocked out by Brakpan in the quarter finals by losing 39-13 and eventually finished in 7th place out of the 20 competing teams.
Vice president in charge of club matters, coaching and development at Roodepoort, Faris Sader said, “The Community Cup next year is going to be interesting. We hope that we play College Rovers on home soil as we are not at our very best away from home. Rovers are a quality side. Because KwaZuu-Natal do not have top-quality university sides Rovers attract the best of players, which makes them a fierce opponent.
“To travel to Durban will be a huge ask for the boys so we hope that we could welcome them to Roodepoort where I believe we could give them (College Rovers) a run for their money.
As far as pre-season training is concerned Faris confirmed that, “Training officially commences as from Tuesday 3 September. All are welcome from U/19 right through to senior level”.
The other pools so far (as well as their final placing in the 2013 Community Cup):
• Pool A: Despatch from Eastern Province (1st), team from the South Western Districts, team from Border, Wild Card team one and Wild Card team two
• Pool C: Brakpan from Valke, Centurion from the Blue Bulls (6th), team from Boland, team from Limpopo and a Wild Card team
• Pool D: Sishen from Griqualand West 12th, Ferros from Mpumalanga (13th), team from the Leopards, team from the Western Province and a Wild Card team
