Let's turn back the hands of time to June 2, where The Toyota Free State 15 went into the final two rounds in a position to seal their place in the semi-finals with a week to spare, but in their way, stood a Western Province storm. A win against Western Province would have left Boland Cavaliers and Western Province with all the work to do, but, the Free State men faltered in the final ten minutes of that clash, losing to the Western Province team by just 4 points to leave them third on the log in the Southern Section. 

With the final round to go, Free State required nothing short of a bonus point win against Border, and a Western Province win over the Boland Cavaliers, who were second on the log, to qualify for the semi-finals.

The first step in the two-step process seemed easy for the Free State team when they met the Border Bulldogs at the Clive Solomon Stadium. A Mafura hat trick and braces from Dobela and Ulengo saw the Free State team run in 12 tries on their way to beating the Border Bulldogs 80-7, first step completed.

The second part of the process would be the hardest part, watching a faltering Western Province team take on third place Boland Cavaliers. Western Province went into the game having lost a few players to their senior franchise team and it was something that Boland looked to capitalise on. 

A closely contested game saw the lead change hands several times throughout the encounter until the 72nd minute, where Garrick Mattheus had the final say. The Boland half back stepped up to convert a penalty to hand his team a 21-22 lead, a lead that they would carry to the final whistle, earning them a place in the competitions' semi-finals. 

The two semi-finals are scheduled to take place on Sunday June 16, with the ISG Pumas taking on Boland at 12:30, and Western Province taking on the Tafel Lager Griquas at 14:30.

@Samludidi - OFM Sport