Griquas are going to win this Currie Cup, and the semi-finals made that easier to say, not harder. They took the Lions apart 52-12 in Kimberley on Sunday 6 September, seven tries to two, 35-5 up at the break. The Pumas got through the other one 27-24 in Bloemfontein on a Clinton Swart penalty in the 70th minute.
So the final is Griquas v Pumas, Saturday 12 September, Suzuki Stadium in Kimberley, kick-off 17:05 SAST. Griquas host because they won the log on 31 points, and they are defending the title they took in 2025.
The Lions and the Cheetahs are out. Below is the reasoning behind our call, the semi-final detail, the closed log, and the markets SA bookmakers actually price for domestic rugby.
State of Play
Two teams left, and one match to play. Griquas were ruthless at home, the Pumas won on the road by three, and the Lions and Cheetahs are done for the year.
Pieter Bergh's Griquas were never troubled. Lourens Oosthuizen scored twice, Marco de Witt, Mnombo Zwelendaba, Stefan Coetzee, Tiaan Lange and Jack Hart got the rest, George Whitehead kicked five from five, and the scrum won six penalties. Armand Combrinck and Ethan Adams got the Lions' two tries.
Bloemfontein was the opposite kind of match. Frans Steyn's Cheetahs came back to 24-24 through Ramon Uys, Marko Janse van Rensburg and Carel-Jan Coetzee, then Swart kicked the penalty that sent Jimmy Stonehouse's Pumas to Kimberley. Darren Adonis scored off a stolen lineout, Andre Goedhals and Gustav du Rand got the others.
That is the shape of the final in one line. Griquas do it with a set piece and a goal kicker; the Pumas do it by hanging around until someone blinks.
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Key Facts at a Glance
Two tiers ran this year. The First Division finished in July, and the Premier Division has one match left. Here's the whole competition in eight boxes.
The eight sides in the 2026 Premier Division were Griquas (Kimberley), Free State Cheetahs (Bloemfontein), Pumas (Mbombela), Golden Lions (Ellis Park), Natal Sharks (Kings Park), Boland (Wellington), Stormers XXIII (DHL Stadium), and Blue Bulls (Loftus). Note the Cape entrant: it is Stormers XXIII in this competition, not Western Province. Of the four franchise-backed sides, only the Lions reached a semi-final, and they lost it by 40 points.
Teams
Eight provinces started, two are still standing. Team cards below carry the final log position, the venue, and how each season ended.
The Bulls won the Premier Division three years running from 2021 to 2023. This season they finished bottom of the eight on 6 points from 7 matches and never got near the semi-finals. Loftus at 1,354m is still one of the harder away trips in domestic rugby, and the altitude did not save them once.
The Sharks won the 2024 Currie Cup, beating the Bulls in the final. They finished fifth this time on 18 points, two adrift of the Lions in fourth, and missed the knockouts by exactly that margin. Kings Park is still a hard trip for highveld sides. They just did not win enough away from it.
The Cape entrant in this competition is Stormers XXIII, not Western Province. They finished seventh on 16 points, level with Boland and split on the tiebreak. DHL Stadium is a fine home ground and Cape Town conditions genuinely bother highveld visitors, but the results did not follow. The Cape has now gone another season without a Currie Cup.
Eliminated. Beaten 52-12 by Griquas in the Kimberley semi-final on 6 September, seven tries to two, 35-5 down at half time. Armand Combrinck and Ethan Adams scored their tries. Fourth on the log on 20 points, last year's losing finalists, and this year they went out by 40. When the Lions' defence loses shape they concede in bulk, and Sunday was the bill for that.
Eliminated. Beaten 27-24 by the Pumas at Toyota Stadium in the semi-final on 6 September. Frans Steyn's side pulled it back to 24-24 through Ramon Uys, Marko Janse van Rensburg and Carel-Jan Coetzee, then Clinton Swart kicked a penalty in the 70th minute. Second on the log on 27 points, and the Pumas beat them twice inside eight days to end it. Bloemfontein has now waited another year.
Finalists. Third on the log on 22 points, and they beat the Cheetahs twice in eight days to reach Kimberley: 52-26 in Mbombela in the last round-robin match, then 27-24 in the semi-final. Jimmy Stonehouse has been at this for three decades and won the Cup with them in 2022. The forward pack and Clinton Swart's boot are the whole plan, and it keeps working. They lost 38-14 to Griquas at home in August, which is the problem.
Finalists and favourites. Log winners on 31 points, defending champions from 2025, and 52-12 winners over the Lions in the semi-final. Pieter Bergh coaches them, George Whitehead kicks the goals and did not miss on Sunday, and the scrum forced six penalties in one afternoon. They beat the Pumas 38-14 in Mbombela on 21 August. Now they get the same opponent at home with the trophy on the line.
Wellington-based and representing the Boland region rather than the Cape Town side, Boland went in as the underdogs of the eight and finished sixth on 16 points. That is above Stormers XXIII and ten clear of the Bulls, which counts as a good season in anyone's book. Graft over glamour, as always, and they finished ahead of a Cape franchise side while doing it.
How We Read This Currie Cup Final
Griquas win this. Three things point the same way: they beat the Pumas 38-14 in Mbombela on 21 August, they topped the log on 31 points and finished nine clear of the Pumas, and the final is at their ground.
That 38-14 is the number doing the work. It was away from home, against the pack that has carried the Pumas all season, and Griquas still won by 24. Move the same fixture to Kimberley and the Pumas have to find that margin plus a bit more.
Sunday backed it up. Griquas scored seven tries and won six scrum penalties against the Lions; the Pumas needed a 70th-minute penalty to get past a Cheetahs side they had beaten by 26 the week before. One team is controlling matches, the other is surviving them.
The one caveat is Stonehouse himself. He won this competition with the Pumas in 2022 and he has just taken his side through Bloemfontein, so a trip to Kimberley will not frighten him. If the Pumas turn the final into a slow set-piece arm wrestle and keep it inside 12, the away handicap is where the value sits. We still think Griquas lift it.
Currie Cup First Division
The First Division is the second tier of SA provincial rugby. Six teams compete in a round-robin, and the 2026 edition ran from 13 June to the final on 25 July. Griffons went into it as defending champions.
These teams have smaller budgets and less Springbok representation than the Premier Division sides. The upside for punters is that the markets are less efficient; bookmakers price these fixtures with less information, and there's more edge available if you follow the teams closely. Most SA bookmakers carry match result and handicap for First Division fixtures.
How to Bet on the Currie Cup
One match left, so the market list shrinks to what a final actually prices. Match result gets you started, but handicap and try scorers are where we'd spend the money. Here's how each one works.
Pick the team that wins. Home advantage in this competition is real and Griquas have it: they earned the final at Suzuki Stadium by winning the log, and they beat this same opponent by 24 away from home in August. Straight match result on Griquas is the low-variance version of our call, and the price will reflect that.
Bookmakers set a points spread, typically 5 to 15 points in Currie Cup fixtures. You're betting on whether the favourite covers it or the underdog beats it. This is the market we'd actually argue with in the final: Griquas won by 24 in Mbombela, so if the line comes out at anything under two scores the Pumas plus points is the thinking punter's side.
First try scorer and anytime try scorer are well-supported Currie Cup markets. Wingers and outside backs score most in open play, and hookers clean up from lineout drives near the line. Griquas put seven tries on the Lions and the Pumas scored three of theirs from forward pressure, one straight off a stolen lineout, so both packs are live here. Anytime beats first scorer for one-off finals.
The outright is now a two-horse market: Griquas or the Pumas. Anyone still holding an ante-post Griquas ticket from July is sitting comfortably. If you're coming to it fresh on Monday, the outright and the match result are the same bet with a different label, so take whichever surface prices it better. Check the best rugby betting sites for the widest selection.
Season-long market on who finishes with most points from penalties, conversions, and tries. With one match left this is effectively settled and most books will have pulled it or shortened it to nothing. Match-level kicking props for the final are the better use of your money now, with George Whitehead and Clinton Swart both on goal duty.
One more angle on totals: high-altitude grounds produce higher-scoring rugby because the ball carries further in thinner air, and the interior venues all sit up there. The two semi-finals produced 115 points between them, and the last Griquas v Pumas meeting produced 52. We'd be leaning to the over on the final's total rather than the under.
Best Bookmakers for Domestic Rugby
We picked these five for Currie Cup coverage specifically: rugby market depth, live in-play availability, and how they handle domestic fixtures outside the top URC games. All hold valid SA provincial gambling licences.
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Final Log and the Final
The round-robin is finished. Every side played seven, and this is how the log closed.
| Pos | Team | Played | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Griquas | 7 | 31 |
| 2 | Free State Cheetahs | 7 | 27 |
| 3 | Pumas | 7 | 22 |
| 4 | Golden Lions | 7 | 20 |
| 5 | Natal Sharks | 7 | 18 |
| 6 | Boland | 7 | 16 |
| 7 | Stormers XXIII | 7 | 16 |
| 8 | Blue Bulls | 7 | 6 |
The top four went through, two came back out, and this is the knockout ledger.
| Date | Match | Kick-off (SAST) | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sun 6 Sept 2026 | Griquas 52 Lions 12 (semi-final) | Played | Suzuki Stadium, Kimberley |
| Sun 6 Sept 2026 | Cheetahs 24 Pumas 27 (semi-final) | Played | Toyota Stadium, Bloemfontein |
| Sat 12 Sept 2026 | Final: Griquas v Pumas | 17:05 | Suzuki Stadium, Kimberley |
Griquas host because they finished higher on the log. Kick-off is 17:05 SAST on Saturday 12 September at Suzuki Stadium, and matchday squads normally land 24 to 48 hours before kick-off.
History
The Currie Cup has been contested since 1889, making it the oldest provincial rugby union competition in the world. The trophy was donated by Sir Donald Currie, a shipping magnate, who gave it to the team that performed best against the first touring British side to visit South Africa. Griqualand West, having received the cup, chose to present it as a prize for provincial competition rather than keep it. SA rugby has been fighting for it ever since.
Western Province, the Cape union whose modern Currie Cup side enters as Stormers XXIII, won more titles than anyone across the competition's history. In the professional era, the Bulls became the dominant force, particularly from 2009 through 2023. The SA Cup qualification system has tightened things; the title has moved more freely since, and Griquas' 2025 win was the second time a smaller province had broken through in the professional era.
| Year | Champion | Runner-Up |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Griquas | Lions |
| 2024 | Sharks | Bulls |
| 2023 | Bulls | Sharks |
| 2022 | Pumas | Bulls |
| 2021 | Bulls | Sharks |
The Bulls dominated from 2021, but the Pumas interrupted the run in 2022 with one of the most celebrated upsets of the professional era. The Bulls came back in 2023, the Sharks won in 2024, and Griquas took the title in 2025. Now the 2026 final is Griquas against the Pumas, which is the clearest statement yet that this trophy has stopped being franchise property.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is the Currie Cup 2026 final and who is in it?
Griquas play the Pumas on Saturday 12 September 2026 at Suzuki Stadium in Kimberley, kick-off 17:05 SAST. Griquas got there by beating the Lions 52-12 in Kimberley on Sunday 6 September, and the Pumas by beating the Cheetahs 27-24 in Bloemfontein the same day. The competition opened on 17 July 2026.
Who are the defending Currie Cup champions?
Griquas are the defending Currie Cup Premier Division champions, having won the title in 2025. They topped the 2026 round-robin log on 31 points, which is why the 2026 final is being played in Kimberley.
How many teams are in the 2026 Currie Cup Premier Division?
Eight teams contested the 2026 Currie Cup Premier Division: Griquas, the Free State Cheetahs, the Pumas, the Golden Lions, the Natal Sharks, Boland, Stormers XXIII, and the Blue Bulls. The Cape entrant is Stormers XXIII, not Western Province. Griquas topped the log on 31 points and the Bulls finished last on 6. Griquas and the Pumas came through the semi-finals on 6 September.
What is the Currie Cup First Division?
The Currie Cup First Division is the second tier of South African provincial rugby. Six teams compete, and the 2026 edition ran from 13 June to the final on 25 July. Griffons went in as defending First Division champions.
What bet types are available for Currie Cup betting?
All major SA bookmakers offer match result, handicap, and total points over/under for Premier Division matches, and that is what the final will carry. Try scorer markets are available at most of the operators listed here. Outright winner is now a two-name market at Hollywoodbets, Betway, and WSB; not every bookmaker carries an outright, so check before you commit.
Is the Currie Cup the oldest rugby competition in the world?
Yes. The Currie Cup has been contested since 1889, making it the oldest provincial rugby union competition in the world. The trophy was donated by Sir Donald Currie after the first British tour to South Africa, and the provinces have been fighting for it ever since.
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