DHL Western Province have ended the league phase of the Currie Cup title defence with a full house of six bonus-point wins, to claim top spot and home advantage heading into the play-offs.
The defending champions made it a clean sweep of their opponents with an impressive 34-7 victory against the Vodacom Blue Bulls in a match reduced to just 40 minutes due to extreme weather at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.
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Despite the torrential rain, DHL Western Province still managed to score four tries before the match was called off at half-time, which saw them end with a maximum of 30 log points from their six league games.
In all, Head Coach John Dobson’s team have scored 38 tries – at an average of more than six per game – to end the round robin phase with a points difference of +163, which is more than 100 points better than the second-placed Cell C Sharks.
Wing Sergeal Petersen currently tops the try-scorers list with eight five-pointers from six games, while fellow outside back and goal-kicker SP Marais is the top points scorer with 79 points thus far.
DHL Western Province’s defence has also been the best in the competition, with just 113 points conceded in their six games.
Having started their campaign with a 32-0 shut-out against Toyota Free State Cheetahs in the pouring rain at DHL Newlands, they followed that up with a convincing 57-28 win against iCollege Pumas in Nelspruit.
They were just as ruthless on their second visit to the Highveld, racking up an impressive 65-38 win against Xerox Golden Lions at Emirates Airline Park.
After that there were consecutive home wins against Tafel Lager Griquas and Cell C Sharks at DHL Newlands, before their 40-minute demolition of Vodacom Blue Bulls at Loftus Versfeld.
This all meant that they finished the league phase of the season four log points clear of second-placed Cell C Sharks and will face Vodacom Blue Bulls in their semifinal, which kicks off at 17h00 on Saturday at DHL Newlands.
Should they continue their unbeaten run and beat the Pretoria side in the semifinal, they will host the Currie Cup Final at DHL Newlands and attempt to make it a record 35 titles.
