Unbeaten WP march on
Western Province, the Sharks XV (South Section), Griquas and the Pumas (North) will host the four Vodacom Cup quarterfinals next weekend after all of them finished the league phase of the competition with victories.
The team from Cape Town finished the season unbeaten - the only side not to lose a game thus far in 2012.
WP concluded their league fixtures with a good 42-32 win over the struggling Free State XV in Durbanville on Saturday, with flank Rohan Kitshoff getting a hat-trick, and will host the Golden Lions in the quarterfinal round.
Griquas crushed the Valke by 83-3 in Kimberley on Thursday afternoon to clinch top spot in the North Section. They scored 11 tries and finished the season with 35 tries scored - the most of all the teams. Griquas will host the defending champions, the Pampas XV, in the play-offs.
The Pampas XV snuck into the quarterfinals thanks to a losing bonus point after going down by 30-24 to the Sharks XV in Stellenbosch on Saturday. This meant the Argentineans ended on 21 log points, the same as the Boland Kavaliers, but they advance to the play-offs thanks to a better points differential.
Sharks XV wing Sibusiso Sithole, one of the attendees of the second Springbok Planning Camp in Pretoria last weekend, scored twice as the Sharks XV cemented second spot on the log. The Blue Bulls will have to travel to Durban to take on the KwaZulu-Natalians.
The Blue Bulls, runners up last year, only needed a win against the Griffons in Welkom to advance to the quarterfinals, which they did in some style, scoring eight tries as they beat the team from the Northern Free State by 50-28 at the North West Stadium on Friday.
On Saturday evening, the Pumas made sure they finished second in the North Section thanks to an emphatic 46-10 win over the Leopards in Witbank. Coenie van Wyk scored three tries for the home team, with Jaco Bouwer adding a brace for the impressive Mpumalangans.
The EP Kings booked their spot in the Vodacom Cup quarterfinals when they beat the Boland Kavaliers by 29-24 at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth on Friday. The Bolanders produced a spirited second-half performance which gave the home side a slight scare, but in the end, the Kings had done enough in the first half to secure the all-important victory.
For the SWD Eagles, a disappointing season ended in their seventh defeat of 2012 when they were beaten by 47-31 by the Border Bulldogs in Queenstown on Saturday.
They went down early to a superb individual try by SWD speedster Clinton Wagman, and conceded two more tries in the first half, but after that the team from East London put foot down to record a solid victory over their Kings partners.
All the scores and scorers from the weekend:
Griquas 83-3 Valke
The scorers:
For Griquas:
Tries: Schoeman 2, Karemaker 2, Coetzee, Stemmet, van Niekerk, Vogt, Westraadt, Hugo, Jansen Cons: Vogt 7, Boshoff 4
Pens: Vogt 2
For Valke:
Pen: Kotze
EP Kings 29-24 Boland Kavaliers
The scorers:
For EP Kings:
Tries: Nokwe, van Breda, Sampson
Con: Van Staden
Pens: Van Staden 4
For Boland Kavaliers:
Tries: Magaba, September, Sifoko
Cons: Watts 3
Pen: Watts
Griffons 28-50 Blue Bulls
The scorers:
For Griffons:
Tries: Steyn, Graaf, Nel, Van der Merwe
Cons: Graaf 4
For Blue Bulls:
Tries: Cook, Skosan, Serfontein, Beyers, Du Plessis, Mastriet, Pretorius, Mostert
Cons: Dunlop 4, Du Plessis
Pampas XV 24-30 Sharks XV
The scorers:
For Pampas XV:
Tries: Barrea, Madero
Con: Madero
Pens: Gonzales Iglesias, Madero
DGs: Gonzales Iglesias, Madero
For Sharks XV:
Tries: Jordaan, Reinach, Sithole 2
Cons: Prinsloo 2
Pens: Prinsloo 2
Western Province 42-31 Free State XV
The scorers:
For Western Province:
Tries: De Allende, Kitshoff 3, Luckan, Lobberts
Cons: Catrakilis 3
Pens: Catrakilis 2
For Free State XV:
Tries: Smit, Kritzinger, Van Schalkwyk, Mason
Cons: Scheepers 4
Pen: Scheepers.
Border Bulldogs 47-31 SWD Eagles
The scorers:
For Border Bulldogs:
Tries: Basson, Kebe, Fourie, Deen-Ruiters, Penalty try
Cons: Dukisa 5
Pens: Dukisa 4
For SWD Eagles:
Tries: Wagman, Raubenheimer, Le Roux, Rautenbach, McBean
Cons: Rhoode 3
Pumas 46-10 Leopards
The scorers:
For Pumas:
Tries: Van Wyk 3, Bouwer 2, Jackson
Cons: Roos 5
Pens: Roos 2
For Leopards:
Try: Pretorius
Con: Nortier
Pen: Pretoriu