Western Province were crowned the 2014 Currie Cup Champions after a hard fought final against the Golden Lions at Newlands in Cape Town, with the final score ending up 19 to 16.
Before the game South Africa was split down the middle, with equal support for each team. Rugby pundits were also unable to decide on an outright favourite, with predictions also being split 50/50 and most predicting wins of no more than 5 points or so, some even predicting a draw.
The game started off at firecracker pace, with Western Province building up a 13 to nil lead at half time through the boot of Demetri Catrakilis and a try by Jaco Taute. The Lions made a strong comeback in the twenty minutes just after halftime, with fullback Jaco van der Walt rounding off a long range attack. The Lions scrum did show some of the dominance that was expected, but it was not as much of an advantage as they expected it to be. Marnitz Boshoff had an opportunity to send the game into extra time, but his final minute penalty was hooked to the left at the final hooter.
The Lions will be very disappointed at this loss. There were some very nervous moments which resulted in very soft turnovers, mostly with runners making contact with team mates in front of them, resulting in accidental offsides. Marnitz Boshoff had a very ropey game at flyhalf and is not in the form he was in before he fractured his forearm. He missed four important kicks from the tee and some of his option taking was questionable, most notably taking on the Western Province defense without sufficient support around him. Ross Cronje also became very predictable with his wrap around move and Western Province negated the Lions attack by using a rush defense to kill off the attack.
All credit must go to Western Province though. They finished top of the Currie Cup log and earned the right to host the final, which in the end was the deciding factor as the inexperienced Lions team could not replicate the flowing game they so often produce at their Ellis Park home.
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