It was a dream weekend for South African supporters with both the Bulls and Stormers putting in very good wins to cement their place in the historic final that will happen at Orlando Stadium in Soweto this weekend.
The Bulls were the first team to go through with a well-worked victory over the Crusaders. Morne Steyn put 24 points on the board in the 39 – 24 win, which improved his record as the highest point scorer in Super Rugby history. The Stormers had an emphatic victory over the Waratahs and only allowed them to kick over a drop goal and a penalty in a 25 – 6 victory. This victory also means that the Stormers are going into the final having the best defence by far, but they will be coming up against the biggest point scorers in the Super 14 so far, which means that this coming weekend will see a hugely contested match.
Another highlight of the night was the announcement of the Springbok squad that will be playing Wales in two weeks. The side is mostly comprised of overseas-based players, which means that a whole lot of old faces are once again playing for the Springboks, such as Jean de Villiers, Joe Van Niekerk, Butch James and Francois Steyn.
Full Team List
15 Francois Steyn (Racing Metro) – 36 caps
14 Gio Aplon (Vodacom Stormers) – uncapped
13 Jean de Villiers (Munster) – 55 caps
12 Butch James (Bath) – 35 caps
11 Odwa Ndungane (Sharks) – 6 caps
10 Ruan Pienaar (Sharks) – 36 caps
9 Ricky Januarie (Vodacom Stormers) – 40 caps
8 Joe van Niekerk (Toulon) – 51 caps
7 Dewald Potgieter (Vodacom Bulls) – 1 cap
6 Francois Louw (Vodacom Stormers) – uncapped
5 Andries Bekker (Vodacom Stormers) – 21 caps
4 Danie Rossouw (Vodacom Bulls) – 46 caps
3 BJ Botha (Ulster) – 19 caps
2 John Smit (Sharks, Capt) – 93 caps
1 CJ van der Linde (Leinster) – 58 caps
Reserves:
16 Chiliboy Ralepelle (Vodacom Bulls) – 8 caps
17 Jannie du Plessis (Sharks) – 12 caps
18 Alistair Hargreaves (Sharks) – uncapped
19 Ryan Kankowski (Sharks) – 11 caps
20 Meyer Bosman (Vodacom Cheetahs) – 3 caps
21 Juan de Jongh (Vodacom Stormers) – uncapped
22 Bjorn Basson (Vodacom Cheetahs) – uncapped
This is a very mixed team that is full of a few new caps and a lot of overseas based players.
In less-significant news Toulouse have won their fourth European Cup making them the most successful European Cup team with a 21 – 19 over Biarritz.
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