All the teams for 2019 Gold Cup club rugby championship confirmed
All the teams that will participate in the Gold Cup Club Rugby Championship next year have recently been announced by SA Rugby.
The final line-up for the 2019 Gold Cup has been confirmed following the recent nailbiting conclusion to the domestic club season in the Boland town of Worcester.
Worcester Villagers was the last club to qualify after beating defending Boland champions Roses United in the Boland Grand Challenge final.
This game brought the curtain down on one of the longest club seasons on record, with both the Boland and Western Province leagues – at one stage threatened with cancellation – only kicking off in June due to the drought that devastated the Western Cape.
The 2018 season was also one of the most memorable in years, with large crowds commonplace across the country as club and community rugby showed a remarkable resurgence in popularity.
Worcester Villagers will join the 15 other teams already confirmed for South Africa’s flagship national championship for non-university clubs, amongst them 2017 finalists College Rovers, who will be celebrating a milestone 120th year of existence, having been formed during the Anglo-Boer War in 1899.
The line-up includes two former champions in Impala of Rustenburg, who won the Gold Cup in 2014 and 2016, and Durbanville-Bellville, who claimed the 2015 title in fairytale fashion having only qualified for the tournament as a lucky loser.
The most remarkable omission is that of current champions False Bay, who lost to Durbell in the semi-finals of the WP Super League. A decision taken in 2016 to no longer extend an automatic invite to the defending champions means that Bay will unfortunately not be able to defend their title in 2019.
Changes to domestic and international season calendars will see the Gold Cup henceforth occupy a slot early in the season, with the 2019 edition kicking off on Saturday 9 March and concluding with the final on Sunday 14 April.
The Gold Cup’s pre-Easter positioning is also part of a move to create an aligned and clearly defined national club season by 2020, which avoid any overlaps between the Gold Cup and the provincial unions’ club leagues, many of which reported an encouraging surge in popularity and attendances in 2018.
The 16 teams will be divided into four pools of four, with each team playing three pool matches. The top two teams in each pool will proceed to the quarter-finals.
The pool draw and fixtures will be confirmed by SA Rugby in the next few weeks, with a number of additional exciting announcements to be made before the start of the tournament.
The 16 teams are: Gauteng: ABE Midas Naka Bulls (Blue Bulls); Roodepoort (Golden Lions); Springs (Valke); East Rand United (wildcard, Valke). Limpopo: Northam Platinum Rhinos (Blue Bulls Limpopo). Mpumalanga: Secunda (Pumas). North West: Impala (Leopards). Free State: Bloemfontein Police (Cheetahs); Welkom (Griffons). Northern Cape: Sishen (Griquas). KZN: College Rovers (Sharks); Eastern Cape: Swallows (Border); Multisure Gardens (EP). Western Cape: Worcester Villagers (Boland); George (SWD) and Durbanville-Bellville (WP).
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