The weekend’s Women’s Premier Division action will see mouth-watering clashes in Ceres, Cape Town and Durban on Saturday, while in the top four sides will meet in Bloemfontein and George in the First Division semi-finals.
Ceres will play host to the Boland Dames for the first time this season and the expected bumper crowd will have an opportunity to see the high-flying Bulls Daisies in action. In Cape Town, DHL Western Province will host the Border Ladies in what will be a repeat of last year’s final, with the sides in a race to finish second on the log. In the final match of the round, the EP Queens travel to Durban to meet the Cell C Sharks Women.
At City Park in Cape Town, DHL WP will come into the match with some consistency in selection, especially in their backline, with Alicia Willemse the only change from the team that beat the Mastercard Golden Lions Women last weekend.
Asiphe Mayaba will be looming large on the wing and will be keen to add to her 12 tries so far this season, the leading mark in the tournament.
Border will take comfort from their previous encounter with WP, which they won in Mdantsane, mainly due to a dominant forward pack that won them a penalty try from a scrum amongst other rewards. Not much has changed in that department and they will be looking for a similar result.
The Boland Dames held the lead after 30 minutes of their previous encounter with the Bulls Daisies in Pretoria, but then fell away in the second half, losing 36-6.
Whether they will be fired up enough by the Ceres crowd to have another good start remains to be seen, as the Daisies are just steamrolling everyone in their way now. Boland’s Springbok Women No 8 Aseza Hele will again have to stand tall in this match.
The Pretoria side tweaked their team from last weekend’s win with the halfback pairing of Unam Tose and Byrhandrè Dolf a significant change. The midfield combination of Shiniqwa Lamprecht and Jakkie Cilliers looks immensely powerful as well.
The EP Queens started well with a solid win in the opening round but they have since lost their way somehow. It is tough to see how they will regroup to beat the Cell C Sharks Women, especially in Durban.
The Queens had a bye last weekend after a big defeat to the Daisies, but for the Durbanites, there are no respite after their biggest defeat ever, also suffered at the hands of the team from Pretoria. They will have to front up if they want to remain in contention and should the result not come their way, it will be another season that promised much, but delivered little.
SA Rugby also confirmed that the postponed game between the Boland Dames and the Cell C Sharks Women will take place on Wednesday, 9 August at HollywoodBets Kings Park, on KP2 at 12h00. The match was postponed after flooding in the Boland region meant the players could not travel.
Match information:
Cell C Sharks Women v EP Queens
Venue: Hollywoodbets Kings Park 2, Durban
Date: Saturday 29 July
Referee: Zoe Naude
Kick-off: 14h00
Livestream: SuperSport Schools app
DHL Western Province v Border Ladies
Venue: City Park, Cape Town
Date: Saturday 29 July
Referee: Angie Bezuidenhout
Kick-off: 14h00
Livestream: SuperSport Schools app
Boland Dames v Bulls Daisies
Venue: Delicious RFC, Ceres
Date: Saturday 29 July
Referee: Bulela Qwane
Kick-off: 14h15
Women’s First Division:
According to the form book, the Free State Women and SWD Eagirls will be able to secure their spots in the Women’s First Division final as they host Limpopo Blue Bulls Women and Leopards Women in the semi-finals in Bloemfontein and George respectively.
The Free Staters have been unstoppable this season and in their previous match in league play, they beat Limpopo 79-0 in Bloemfontein. There are no clear indications that there will be a different result in the Toyota Stadium this time around.
The Eagirls and Leopards (last year finalists) met in the second round of the league, with SWD winning 46-12 in Potchefstroom six weeks ago. The visitors have improved as the tournament progressed, but this match is for the SWD team to lose, especially as they have home ground advantage as well.
Match information:
Free State Women v Limpopo Blue Bulls Women
Venue: Toyota Stadium, Bloemfontein
Date: Saturday 29 July
Referee: Aneka Fick
Kick-off: 12h00
SWD Eagirls v Leopards Women
Venue: Outeniqua Park, George
Date: Saturday 29 July
Referee: Siyanda Pikoli
Kick-off: 13h00
Issued by SA Rugby Communication
