The 2018 Currie Cup will get underway this August and the tournament has gone on a major overhaul.
The world’s oldest domestic rugby competition, the Currie Cup, has had a major facelift this year with SARU announcing that teams will only face each other once during the round-robin phase, as opposed to the old system that featured home and away fixtures. It’s a shrewd move on the behalf of the South African Rugby Union considering the tournament runs concurrently with the Rugby Championship and that the 2016 Champions, the Free State Cheetahs, will have to balance Currie Cup commitments with their Pro14 assignments.
We’ll take a look at the tournament changes as well as the fixtures list below.
Teams Participating in 2018
DHL Western Province (*Reigning Champions)
Cell C Sharks (*2017 Runners-up)
Vodacom Blue Bulls
Toyota Free State Cheetahs
Tafel Larger Griquas
Xerox Lions
iCOLLEGE Pumas
Changes
While there are no major on-field changes, there has been a massive overhaul to the fixtures list. As I noted earlier, teams will only face each other once during the round-robin phase. This will help ensure that every fixture is a vital contest. We will also be treated to two Saturday triple-headers on the 15th and the 22nd of September. The schedule on these days will see the first game kick-off at 15:00, the second at 17: 15, and the third at 19:10.
In order to keep the focus on the Springboks, the organizers have also decided to limit the number of Currie Cup games taking place on the same day that the Springboks play a home Rugby Championship fixture. So we will only see one Currie Cup fixture played when the ‘Boks host Argentina on Saturday the 17th of August, as well as when they take on the Australians on the 29th of September, and the All Blacks on the 6th of October.
We will also be treated to quite a few Friday night fixtures with the tournament actually getting underway in the ‘Friday Night Lights’ spot which will pit the Cheetahs against the Bulls. Unfortunately, we won’t be treated to any of the Thursday and Sunday games that were trialled last year with all of this year’s fixtures being played on either a Friday or Saturday.
Outright Betting
Lions 1/1
Sharks 28/10
Western Province 9/2
Bulls 5/1
Cheetahs 33/1
Griquas 66/1
Pumas 66/1
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Written by Darry Worthington for @Hollywoodbets.net
