Western Province finished a lowly seventh in this year’s Currie Cup after going down 37-29 to Griquas in the Groot Gat in the Cape side’s last game of the competition on Friday.
Director of rugby John Dobson picked a strong Streeptruie matchday squad, with Springboks Steven Kitshoff, Joseph Dweba and Ben-Jason Dixon in the starting team and Andre-Hugo Venter on the replacements bench.
But of how his powered-up WP team still lost, Dobson says: “We scrummed well, our lineouts were pretty poor, and it cost us the game. But credit to Griquas, there’s some really good promising players here and they just kept fighting.”
Meanwhile, the Lions made sure of the top spot on the log after klapping the Griffons 62-5 on Friday and tackle the fourth-placed Cheetahs, who beat the Pumas 41-14 in Nelspruit on Saturday, in this weekend’s semifinal at Ellis Park.
The Bulls (second) tackle the third-placed Sharks in the other semi in Pretoria in what will be a grudge match after the Sharks beat the Bulls 24-18 in yesterday’s final pool game in Durban.