The Valke and NovaVit Griffons will host the Carling Currie Cup First Division semifinals next weekend after the top two teams finished the league phase of the competition with solid victories, while the Leopards edged into the top four with a bonus-point victory over the Phangela SWD Eagles in George.
The men from North West will now travel to Kempton Park for their semifinal against the table-topping Valke, while Eastern Province will be in action in Welkom against the Griffons, who finished second on the log.
The Valke did very well in a cold, wet, and windy Gqeberha to beat Eastern Province by 22-3 on Friday afternoon, with Mbembe Payi (fullback) scoring two first-half tries for the East Randers.
They visitors led 17-0 at the break and managed to keep the Elephants at bay in the second half, as the conditions worsened. It was the first game in which they didn’t grab a try-scoring bonus-point, but the crucial victory would have made up for that.
While it was the Valke’s first win over EP in Nelson Mandela Bay since 2017, JP Immelman will be especially pleased with his team’s defence as they managed to keep the hosts tryless.
The Griffons ran riot in Welkom to beat the Border Bulldogs by 80-21 in their final pool match, scoring 12 tries in the process to ensure they enter the semifinals high on confidence.
Willem van den Hever and Quan Eymann each scored a hat-trick of tries for the hosts, while Andrew Kota contributed 30 points with two tries and 10 conversions.
The Griffons, who scored at a point per minute, led by 40-14 at the break and doubled their points’ tally in the second half.
In George, the Leopards started very well and led 19-7 at the break after outscoring their hosts by three tries to one, but the Eagles fought back to level the scores with two tries in the first 15 minutes after the break.
However, the Leopards scored their fourth try with just under 20 minutes to go and hung on to their lead to move up to fourth from fifth on the log in the final round, and in doing so, knocked SWD out of the title race.
Venues and kick-off times of the two semifinals will be confirmed in due course.
SCORERS
Eastern Province 3 (0) Valke 22 (17)
EP – Penalty goal: Shirwin Cupido.
Valke – Tries: Mbembe Payi (2), Wernich Aucamp. Conversions: Ezrick Alexander, Keagan Fortune. Penalty goal: Fortune.
NovaVit Griffons 80 (40) Border Bulldogs 21 (14)
Griffons – Tries: Willem van den Hever (3), Quan Eymann (3), Jandre de Beer, Andrew Kota (2), Simon Westraadt, Mango Ngundue, Kyle Cyster. Conversions: Kota (10).
Border – Tries: Soso Xakalashe, Hlumelo Pantyo, Ryan Maree. Conversions: Maxwell Klaasen (3).
Phangela SWD Eagles 19 (7) Leopards 26 (19)
SWD – Tries: Marquit September, Hlomla Zondani, Clive Kruger. Conversions: Keegan Schaefer (2).
Leopards – Tries: Ghudian van Reenen, Zack Serfontein, Indiphile Tyeda, Andre Grobler. Conversions: Shaun-Christian Baxter (3).