Fan-fuelled Champion Team ready for match day
JOBURG – Fans must look out for the glamorous reveal of the official Champions Team kit and the presentation of the team.
It’s all systems go for the historic fan-fuelled Carling Currie Cup Champions Match on November 6 at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria.
Currie Cup sponsors Carling Black Label has allowed fans to make their voices heard through USSD codes on specially marked packs of various brand beer cans and bottles to cast their votes for the Champions Team line-up to face the Kenyan rugby national team.
The South African Champion Team will comprise players of various Currie Cup unions chosen by the fans and the match will be a celebration of a sport so loved by millions of South Africans.
The votes have been tallied and the team is finally ready to be revealed. And boy, it is expected to be one crackerjack of a side, ready to entertain supporters with an enterprising brand of rugby.
Players from all seven of the unions that campaigned in the 2021 Currie Cup season were eligible for selection, but with the Vodacom Bulls and Cell C Sharks having been the dominant forces over the past few seasons, it will be no surprise that the Champions Team might be packed full of the men from Pretoria and Durban.
Vodacom Bulls hooker, Schalk Erasmus leads the charge with the most votes, amassing an incredible 26 088 votes, and he is closely followed by his partner in the front row, prop Simphiwe Matanzima, who had 25 171 votes cast for his inclusion.
The pair are joined by Phumzile Maqondwana and Nama Xaba as loose forward. Sigma Lions’ lock PJ Steenkamp and the Durban-based lock Reniel Hugo also get their call-up, and the experienced Bulls loose forward Arno Botha and young loosehead Ntuthuko Mchunu complete a powerful pack.
Vodacom Bulls scrumhalf Keagan Johannes slots in at no 9, and then it’s an all-Toyota Cheetahs affair in the backline, with Brandon Thomson set to run the game at flyhalf, and a centre pairing of Howard Mnisi and Chris Smit.
Bulls speed merchant Stravino Jacobs will start on the wing, and exciting fullback Sibongile Novuka provides the last line of defence. Former Blitzboks standout and Sharks wing Werner Kok will be looking to produce his inimitable flair out wide, along with the speedy Jacobs.
Fans are urged to look out for the glamorous reveal of the official Champions Team kit and the presentation of the team ahead of the crunch encounter with the Kenyans on November 6.
