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[2018 Currie Cup] Round 1 - (17 August 2018)

TRF_heineken

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Venue: Mbombela Stadium
Time: 17:00

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Venue: Toyota Stadium
Time: 19:00
 
So nice of you to think of the sponsors too!
 
Haha, that's how I got it from the web.

I was actually a bit shellshocked when I saw that it starts on Friday. I thought it only starts in September.
Yea i am also shocked about the scheduling. I thought this years currie cup was reduced in size to accomodate the Cheetahs playing in the pro 14. But the Cheetahs play the Bulls and WP and then the same weekend that they host the sharks in bloem (week 3) they play munster in Ireland. Obviously they will prioritise the pro 14.
 
Yea i am also shocked about the scheduling. I thought this years currie cup was reduced in size to accomodate the Cheetahs playing in the pro 14. But the Cheetahs play the Bulls and WP and then the same weekend that they host the sharks in bloem (week 3) they play munster in Ireland. Obviously they will prioritise the pro 14.

Yup.

There are 7 teams in this year's premier division of the Currie Cup. Which means that at least 1 team per week will have a rest.
The teams are:
Blue Bulls
Golden Lions
Pumas
Griquas
Western Province
Cheetahs
Sharks.

The Cheetahs knew that there will be fixtures that would clash with their Pro14 matches and that's why they have an extended squad for both tournaments which they just recently announced. It will basically be that their A team will play Pro14 and their B team Currie Cup, with a few tweaks here and there to keep them competitive.
 
Results of Week 1:

Pumas 42 - 19 Griquas
Blue Bulls 34 - 12

I enjoyed the Blue Bulls vs. Cheetahs game, and when the Cheetahs got that early try, I thought that it's going to be a long day for the Blue Bulls youngsters. But man, did the youngsters came to play. Manie Libbok was just outstanding for the Bulls, and a few of the forwards also played out of their skin.

I was however disappointed in the Cheetahs performance, they mixed up a few of their more experienced campaigners with some new guys, I guess in preparation for the Pro14, but they were rather poor all night. The only guy that played well for them was their hooker, Dweba, who also scored a pretty good try in the corner. Mohoje was extremely rusty
 
If I could ask a quick question about the fan culture of South African rugby.

I was looking around Wikipedia and it seems you have a fairly complicated structure with clubs in different top tier leagues, each made up of multiple countries. And then you have this tournament which is also big, but contested by different teams from the ones in the top leagues. Does the average fan have a team they support in this Currie Cup, and then also a team they support in the top tier leagues? Kind of like college vs pro sports in the US. Or do the fans generally support only one club, no matter the level of competition where the compete? Kind of like English soccer.
 
If I could ask a quick question about the fan culture of South African rugby.

I was looking around Wikipedia and it seems you have a fairly complicated structure with clubs in different top tier leagues, each made up of multiple countries. And then you have this tournament which is also big, but contested by different teams from the ones in the top leagues. Does the average fan have a team they support in this Currie Cup, and then also a team they support in the top tier leagues? Kind of like college vs pro sports in the US. Or do the fans generally support only one club, no matter the level of competition where the compete? Kind of like English soccer.

To make it easy for you, please look at this thread: https://www.therugbyforum.com/threads/what-about-the-currie-cup-teams.37295/#post-786561

There we explain how the Currie Cup works and the differences between Club/Union and Franchise.
 
To make it easy for you, please look at this thread: https://www.therugbyforum.com/threads/what-about-the-currie-cup-teams.37295/#post-786561

There we explain how the Currie Cup works and the differences between Club/Union and Franchise.
So, you list the Western Province and Boland Cavaliers Currie Cup teams as feeding into the Stormers Super Rugby team. Is your average Stormers Super Rugby fan also a fan of one of those Currie Cup teams, or are the fanbases generally separate?
 
So, you list the Western Province and Boland Cavaliers Currie Cup teams as feeding into the Stormers Super Rugby team. Is your average Stormers Super Rugby fan also a fan of one of those Currie Cup teams, or are the fanbases generally separate?

Well, since Boland isn't playing in the premier league against Western Province, I would suspect that the supporters would support both of them as the regions are so very close to one another. I honestly won't know, as I'm living in Limpopo Province, which is 2000 km's away from that region and I live in Blue Bulls country.
 
So, you list the Western Province and Boland Cavaliers Currie Cup teams as feeding into the Stormers Super Rugby team. Is your average Stormers Super Rugby fan also a fan of one of those Currie Cup teams, or are the fanbases generally separate?

You can look at it like this:
Each Super rugby team has Currie Cup equivalent. But not every Currie Cup team has a Super rugby or Pro 14 equivalent.

Sharks in super rugby = Sharks in Currie cup
Lions in Super rugby = Golden Lions in the Currie Cup
Stormers in Super rugby = Western Province in Currie cup
Cheetahs in pro 14 = Free state Cheetahs in Currie cup (the difference here is that with the super rugby teams they can basically play the exact same team in the Currie cup without their Springboks but as the Pro 14 is the same time as Currie cup you can expect two different Cheetah teams in the competitions with small movement here and there)
Bulls in Super rugby = Blue Bulls in Currie Cup

Then we obviously have the other Currie cup sides who does not have a Super Rugby of Pro 14 equivalent. They then negotiate deals with the Super rugby franchises to send their best players to whatever Franchise. But i dont think the unions are still contractually linked to the Super rugby franchises and with that i mean that a team such as the Pumas can sen some of their guys to the lions during Super rugby and others to the Bulls or Sharks, same goes for the Griquas. Its up to the player to decide which franchise he wants to play for (If they actually want him) But at the end of the day the Sharks, Bulls, lions, and WP will look 90% similar to the Super rugby sides.

So obviously WP supporters will support the Stormers in Super rugby but thats not to say that cavaliers supporters will do the same. They are free to choose any team they wish as only a few of their players will play for the Stormers the thing is though that because they are so geographically close and they will most likely support the Super rugby team representing their Province.

I dont even think that the Sharks are playing with any players contracted to other unions. Every player as far as i know who played for the Sharks in Super rugbyis either now playing for the Currie cup side, the Springboks or for a Japanese club.
 
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Cavaliers fans would face a dilemma in picking a Super Rugby team. Their local Super Rugby team looks 90% like WP, and I'd assume Currie Cup rivalries are based on close geography. Some would stick with geography, but many (most?) would rebel against supporting what's basically their main rival. Many would probably follow Cavaliers players on their various Super Rugby teams, pick a random team in a different part of the country to support, or just watch as a casual fan with no serious rooting interest. It would be interesting to see an actual fan poll of Currie Cup teams with no direct equivalent team in a major league.
 

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