The Vodacom Cup's most successful teams, the Golden Lions and Griquas, face each other in Kimberley on Friday in the grand finale of the 2014 tournament.
The Vodacom Cup has been won nine times between these two sides, since the tournament's inception in 1998. That means more than half of all the titles have gone either to Johannesburg or Kimberley.
It’s the Lions’ second visit to Kimberley this year. They lost their round five-encounter at GWK Park by 33-18.
This will also be the third time these two sides face each other in the final of the Vodacom Cup. Both previous finals ended in complete blow-outs – in 1998 Griquas won 57-0 and a year later, in 1999, they were smashed by the Golden Lions, 73-7.
Griquas coach Peter Engledow has two players in his match-22 who were part of the Griquas team which last won the title in 2009. They are Steph Roberts (prop) and Simon Westraadt (replacement hooker).
Four more members of the Griquas squad have been part of Vodacom Cup-winning teams. They are Francois Brummer (fly-half) and Rocco Jansen (wing), both with the Blue Bulls, as well as the former WP duo of Ederies Arendse (wing) and Hilton Lobberts (lock).
In Johannesburg, Lions coach Russell Winter has selected two players who were part of their title-winning side last year in Hugo Kloppers (lock) and Michael Bondesio (replacement scrum-half). Vainon Willis (full-back) was a member of the Blue Bulls team which won the competition in 2010, when Brummer kicked a last-gasp drop goal in Pretoria.
Only seven teams have won the Vodacom Cup – the Golden Lions (five times) Griquas (four), the Blue Bulls (three), Western Province, Free State XV, Valke and Pampas XV (once each).
