Currie Cup spectacular

SEMIFINALS TIME: SHARKS, LIONS PRECEDE WESTERN PROVINCE, BULLS

Glittering golden trophy awaits the winners next week.

Crunch time arrives in the Currie Cup semifinals today, with host cities Durban and Cape Town having the eyes of the country on them as four teams fight for the right to advance to the domestic showpiece next weekend.

Host teams the Sharks and Western Province seemingly hold the biggest advantages in an attempt to set up a repeat of last year’s final in Durban, when Province upset the Sharks by winning 33-21 after the Durbanites failed to add to their half-time lead.

This time, the final could be held in Cape Town if the Sharks beat the Golden Lions as expected in the first play-off in Durban, starting at 2.30pm, and Province hold off the Blue Bulls in the second play-off commencing at 5pm.

However, if the Bulls manage to pull off a shock victory, the winner of the Sharks and Lions clash would play hosts in the final.

There was also the added incentive of the Springbok squad being announced ahead of their departure next Sunday for their end-of-year tour, with the first Test against England taking place at Twickenham on November 3.

While the Lions are the underdogs in the first play-off, they have loaded their side this week with Bok players including No 8 Warren Whiteley, wing Aphiwe Dyantyi, flyhalf Elton Jantjies and centre Lionel Mapoe.

Their biggest challenge would be to combat the big Sharks pack, with Bok prop Coenie Oosthuizen and flank Jean-luc du Preez ready to come off the bench in the second half.

In Cape Town, the Province pack held the biggest advantage after prop Wilco Louw almost single-handedly destroyed the Bulls pack last week on the way to a 34-7 thrashing.

Title favourites Province ended the round-robin stage of the competition as the only unbeaten side, having won all six their matches, while the Sharks lost once, the Lions twice and the Bulls three times.

Of the four sides in the playoffs, the Bulls have endured the longest cup drought, having last won the domestic title in 2009, while their last final was played in 2016 when they lost by a 20-point margin to the Cheetahs.

The Sharks last won the title in 2013 when they beat Province 3319 in the final in Cape Town, while the Lions lost in away semifinals over the last two seasons, after lifting the crown for the last time in 2015.

Province were the hot favourites to secure back-to-back titles and to host their first home final since 2014, when they edged the Lions 19-16 in a tense final, with Lions flyhalf Marnitz Boshoff missing a last-second penalty.

Twickenham – Eddie Jones (above) hopes Owen Farrell and Dylan Hartley can follow the example of Australian greats George Gregan and John Eales after naming the pair as England’s co-captains for the November internationals at Twickenham.

New Zealand-born hooker Hartley has been Jones’ firstchoice as skipper when available since the Australian took charge of England following their embarrassing first-round exit on home soil at the 2015 World Cup.

Now less than a year out from next year’s edition in Japan, Jones has taken the unusual step of formally splitting the captaincy between Farrell, already an influential figure at either fly-half or inside centre, and Hartley.

Farrell led England in Hartley’s absence with a concussion injury during their 2-1 series loss in South Africa in June.

But rather than creating confusion over who is in charge – only a solitary captain is allowed to question on the field the reason behind a referee’s decision in rugby union for example – Jones believes sharing the burden of captaincy will benefit England.

As evidence, he cited the start of his time as Wallabies coach when outstanding lock John Eales was the captain, with scrumhalf George Gregan his deputy.

“It’s not a difficult situation, at all,” Jones told reporters at Twickenham after unveiling his 36-man England squad for the November Tests against South Africa, New Zealand, Japan and Australia.

Jones said he had decided to share the captaincy after the series loss to the Springboks.

“Basically after the South Africa tour I thought that if Dylan could get back on the field and start playing, that could be a great situation for us – a really positive situation.” –