ABSA Currie Cup Final ticket sales was moving along swiftly ahead of Saturday’s 2014 final at Newlands, with just 1300 seating and 2000 standing room tickets available by close of business on Monday after public sales went live – online, at the box office and at selected PostNet outlets.
Season tickets are not valid for the Final Saturday, but season ticket holders had until 12:00 SA Time on Wednesday 22 October to purchase their seats for the Final which are being held by Western Province Rugby. Scholars’ season tickets are, however, valid for the Final.
Those season ticket seats not snapped up by the deadline will be released for purchase by Western Province from 09:00 SA Time on Thursday 23 October ahead of Saturday’s ABSA Currie Cup Final between hosts DHL Western Province and the Xerox Golden Lions (kick-off 17:00 SA Time, 15:00 GMT).
Any further ticketing availability for the Final will be communicated via the official WP Rugby website, Facebook and Twitter and also sent out via the media.
TICKET PRICES FOR THE 2014 ABSA CURRIE CUP FINAL ARE AS FOLLOWS:
SEATED
- Category 1 – R350.00
- Category 2 – R250.00
- Category 3 – R150.00
- Category 4 – R350.00
- Category 5 – R200.00
STANDING
- Category 6 – R100.00
Love lost at Newlands?
Wed, 22 Oct 2014 08:43
Booing is the ugliest sound possible
A beloved leaves. That’s the stuff of some of the great poetry, the great novels, great works of art, for it creates some of the greatest anguish man can experience.
It is true when a loved one dies or just goes somewhere else or finds someone else to love. Losing a loved one is painful, and it may just have happened to me last Saturday. Even though I have seen it coming, it seemed somehow so much worse last Saturday.
I first went to Newlands in 1945. I fell in love then and have been in love ever since. And then last Saturday it seemed to leave me. It had changed and gone somewhere else.
Not to Green Point – which heaven forbid – but just changed and gone.
Newlands to me was a place of heroes – George van Reenen, Nols van Heerden, Bubbles Koch, the Fry Brothers, Cecil Moss, Hennie Muller and Otto van Niekerk, Tjol Lategan and Ryk van Schoor, Tank van Dyk and Bull Bisogno, Piet Kriel in a list that goes on and on and onto Jan Pickard, John Gainsford and Doug Hopwood, HO de Villiers, and Morné du Plessis and Carel du Plessis and his brothers, Agie Koch and Rob Louw, Divan Serfontein, Hennie Bekker, Theuns Stofberg, Gert Smal and then Danie Gerber and Chester Williams – names that crop up without even thinking. It was a place where we cheered them on and chased them afterwards for autographs. It was a palace of dreams.
It had sporting customs – a double round of applause for a great try, silence when a kicker kicked. When Rhodesia beat Western Province in 1947, I helped to carry their fullback, John Kitcat off the field. When the Wallabies beat the Springboks in dramatic fashion in 1953, they, too, were carried off. Newlands was that sort of place.
But so much has gone. There are no more five matches every Saturday from April to September – three on the A Field, two on the B Field. The tradition of Newlands, it seems, is being drained away as a result. Now it’s all big occasion stuff where anybody can wear the colours, where raucous jeering and booing fills the air from the time that the visiting teams comes out to warm up till after the final whistle. There are beautiful sounds at rugby – the whistle to start, the special whistle for a try, the thwack of boot on ball, the spontaneous shout of encouragement, the rising excitement as a try looks possible and the cheering when it is scored – that sort of thing. Booing is surely the ugliest sound possible at a rugby football match.
Not that the ‘old days’ were perfect. She was not dressed as elegantly but her heart and soul were right. Now she is far more elegantly dressed but it seems that the man who pays his money may use her as he wills.
Last Saturday I was there when a referee booed and jeered at – almost always when he was right and every booer wrong. The booing of a visiting kicker when he kicked at goal went on, seemingly louder than ever and with self-congratulatory cheers when he missed.
I sat on the lower deck of the Grand Stand. Down at the front of me was a large man with a huge voice. When the Blue Bull coaches came down to go to their team at half-time, he hurled loud insults at them. When the match ended he did the same. That was the new Newlands way of welcoming visitors it seems.
And somehow in all of this I lost my love. My love went away. No longer the love of a lifetime. It was such a sad, sad Saturday.
By Paul Dobson
@rugby365com
1 @ Pietman:
Genade… amazingly well put!
Ja.. nice piece……but a bit too nostalgic though and also not 100% true as things were always rof at Newlands depending where you were seated… the large man with the huge voice had his predecessors…..
Still well written though and it reminds me of the David Kramer song:
“ja ons ouens was rof in die ou dae but we played the gentleman’s game
but it’s all been spilled by politics never going to be the same
so he drifts back to the old days as he hears the manne call
they say, hak hom, hak hom blokkies, blokkies hak daai ball”
…David Kramer.
@ Pietman: Paul Dobson is a true student and gentleman of rugby, who commands (but doesn’t ask for) huge respect within the confines of our game. He speaks the truth. I no longer go out of my way to attend a game at Newlands. For precisely the same reasons described above. It leaves me sick to the core to witness the behavior. I stay at home and watch from the relative peace of my favourite perch or visit a time honoured watering hole over the mountain. They know how to behave there. Well said Paul. Someone had to tell the truth.
@ robzim: howzit Rob. It was never as rof as it is now. Rof is rof. But the current mob has now crossed the line I think. Especially on the lower reaches of the Railway Stand side. Now that’s ugly.
@ Pietman:
1 Pietman.And all othes,r of the same ilk.
The last tine I went to a stadium has been lost in the mists
of time,Mainly (no only) due to reasons proferred by
Paul and yourself
I think it was SA vs Int.15.
Included Hugh Reese Edwards for heavens sake/ And old Domkrag.
Thev best ,most sporting and knowledgeable crowds were those
from Loftus.No,Have never supported Bulle.
Kind regards and good night,Rye
Pastei en koffie op Nuweland
Einde van ‘n era
Dit was die jaar van die rebelle – beide op en van die veld af. Maar dit was ook ‘n jaar van opwindende, liplek-lekker rugby.
Ek praat van 1986, die laaste keer toe die Westelike Provinsie en Transvaal mekaar in ‘n Curriebeker-eindstryd die stryd aangesê het.
Dit is die jaar toe die Nieu-Seelandse Kavaliers Suid-Afrika besoek het. Hulle was, letterlik, Rebelle.
Die rede hoekom ek julle byna drie dekades in die verlede terugneem, is omdat die twee spanne – WP en Leeus – die klok sal terugdraai wanneer hulle Saterdag op Nuweland in die vertoonvenster van Suid-Afrikaanse rugby gaan kragte meet.
* For the English version, CLICK HERE!
Daar is geen twyfel dat die twee beste, en mees bestendigste, spanne van 2014 Saterdag gaan armdruk vir die reg om Sir Donald Currie se skenking vir die volgende jaar in hulle vertoonkas te laat staanmaak.
Net soos 28 jaar gelede is dít die twee spanne wat die mees opwindende rugby opgedis het.
En dit voorspel dat ons nog ‘n skouspel soos min kan verwag.
Daar is soveel wat die twee eindstryde – 1986 en 2014 – in gemeen het.
Die Leeus (destyds Transvaal) se pak voorspelers word hoër as hul teenstanders aangeslaan. De huidige voorry – Ruan Dreyer, Robbie Coetzee en Schalk van der Merwe, met manne soos Armand van der Merwe en Julian Redelinghuys wat as plaasvervangers opgebring kan word – is net so indrukwekkend soos die ooms van 1986 – Piet Kruger, Chris Rogers en Barabas Venter.
Die Transvaal losvoorspelers het Springbokke Jannie Breedt en Wahl Bartman ingesluit, met die geharde Daan Badenhorst op slot.
Nie dat Transvaal nie talent agterlangs gehad het nie. Hugo van As, ‘n onderskatte senter, het immers die eerste drie van die wedstryd gedruk na ‘n skop afgestorm is. Daar was ook die Britse en Ierse Leeu skrumskakel John Robbie, wat hom na die 1980 toer in Suid Afrika gevestig het.
Die klas van 2014 sal op swaar op agterspelers soos Lionel Mapoe en Marnitz Boshoff steun.
Die WP het destyds self a paar ysters voorlangs gehad. Gert Smal, tans die Direkteur van Rugby by die WP, was een van die krag-reuse in die Kaapse span. Daardie pak voorspelers het ook ‘n Springbok met die naam Schalk Burger gehad, die vader van die huidige Bok-losvoorspeler Schalk Burger jr.
Maar dit is agterlangs waar legendes soos Carel du Plessis, Faffa Knoetze en Goggie van Heerden amok gemaak het. Knoetze het een drie en Van Heerden twee gedruk in ‘n wedstryd waarin die Streeptruie eers in die laaste 10 minute die oorhand kon kry en 22-9 gewen het.
En die WP kan eerskomende Saterdag staatmaak op blitse met uitsonderlike vaardighede soos Cheslin Kolbe en Seabelo Senatla. Dis nie te verregaande om te voorspel dat laasgenoemde, Senatla, soos Du Plessis, ‘n legende gaan wees nie.
Die een groot verskil tussen die week en 1986 (wat terloops my eerste Curriebeker-eindstryd as ‘n joernalis was) is dat ek nie weer pastei en koffie onder die hoofpawiljoen sal kan gaan geniet nie. Daai ou ‘restaurant’ en sy tradisie het terwille van modernisering gesneuwel.
Die WP en Transvaal (nou Leeus) het net vier keer in die eindstryd kragte gemeet. Drie daarvan was op Nuweland en hulle het elk twee keer gewen.
WP teen Transvaal in eindstryde:
1939: Transvaal wen 17–6 in Kaapstad
1947: Westelike Provinsie wen 16–12 in Kaapstad
1950: Transvaal wen 22–11 in Johannesburg
1986: Westelike Provinsie wen 22-9 in Kaapstad
* Terloops, die 1986 eindstryd was die einde van ‘n era vir WP rugby, na hulle die Curriebeker-trofee vyf jaar agtereenvolgens verower het. Die volgende jaar het Carel du Plessis en sy broer Michael vir Transvaal in die eindstryd teen Noord-Transvaal gespeel.
Die 1986 spanne
Westelike Provinsie: 15 Calla Scholtz, 14 Carel du Plessis (kaptein), 13 Goggie van Heerden, 12 Faffa Knoetze, 11 Clark Ellis, 10 Chris Smit, 9 Freddie Ferreira, 8 Gert Smal, 7 Deon Lötter, 6 Tiaan Strauss, 5 Schalk Burger (snr), 4 Neil Hugo, 3 Keith Andrews, 2 Shaun Povey, 1 Bill Niewoudt.
William Cockerill replaced Povey in the first half.
Transvaal: 15 Jannie Tiedt, 14 Liaan Kirkham, 13 Dries Maritz, 12 Hugo van As, 11 Hempas Rademeyer, 10 Schalk Naudé, 9 John Robbie, 8 Jannie Breedt (kaptein), 7 Andries Fourie, 6 Wahl Bartmann, 5 Lappies Labuschagne, 4 Daan Badenhorst, 3 Piet Kruger, 2 Chris Rogers, 1 Barabas Venter.
Geen plaasvervangers gebruik
Deur Jan de Koning
@King365ed
Wish I could be at the old Newlands again, south stand, smoking Cavalla Ovals and sipping Mellow Wood behind grandpa’s back….
@ Tassies:
Correct the guy is an encyclopedia of South African rugby.
I’ll certainly take his word for how things were rather than some hippy from Durbanville who was too goofed to find his way to the stadium.
😆
I had great times in the dungeon bar under the grand stand (now the supporters club bar which you can only enter from Boundary Road).
Once a guy was sitting on a chair in that bar dress in blue and white stripes which included his socks, watching the game on the TV.
He must of had a couple or 10 cause he was really looking under the weather.
It was 5 mins before half time (when I usually go an get a drink, cause it gets to busy half time) and Province scored a great try.
This guy jumped up from that chair and said…
“Fok, ek wens ek was by Nuweland”
Hi guys, I have commented on the behaviour of the crowd before and how the public announcer at Newlands has tried his best to get the crowd to show respect to the opposition. He did the same on Saturday and will obviously continue with that in the final.
IMO the behaviour was quite good initially and the announcer even congratulated the crowd after a kick by JLP when there was silence. Unfortunately after a while the booing started again.
I have watched the match again during the week. One instance Kolbe was tackled and played the ball without first releasing the ball and he was penalized. The crowd (many of them) started to boo the ref. I realised immediately that the ref made the correct decision. It was confirmed on the replay. Many incidents of booing happen because of plain bad manners but quite a lot because of ignorance (by spectators) of the laws of the game. I don’t think we’ll ever get rid of it but we have to try to do something at least.
I listened to Thelo Wakefield’s brief comments this morning on a breakfast show and he said that it has been a disappointing season – referring to the Super R competition. He gave a lot of credit to Gert Smal’s input during the past 6+ months. I’m not a fan of Thelo but he was the guy who really made a huge effort to convince the clubs to give Gert an opportunity. IMO he has already shown that the correct call was made.
@ Jeraldjay:
We’ve had some good times in there, haven’t we ??
IMO the fact that the spectators are allowed to consume beers in the pavilion is a contributing factor to the booing. Many can’t hold their own and start to misbehave after a while. I love my beer but at a game I’ll perhaps one of 2 before the match but not in the stands. At home it is a different story though !!
@ Jeraldjay:
😆
@ charlesm:
Geez there were a few times the crowd boo’ed the ref for the wrong reasons, completely destroyed PRO and the game.
MUCH larger impact than the TV Producer 😀
gunther wrote:
The same hippy from Durbanville was still a schoolboy when he was threatened to be killed at Newlands by a gang of very large men ( vandag donder ons jou dood laaitie!). They then proceeded to forcefully push him to the ground and if it was not for the screaming of a few female UCT students that distracted them he might have been maimed that day.
It happened during the era that Dobson is longing for and i wonder if he would have had such good memories of the “good old days” if he had a similar experience.
@ robzim:
Aitog now you are being a drama queen.
your big bek probably got you in trouble again.
😆
Anyway I will be on my best behaviour on Saturday in case someone tries to steek me with a bicycle spoke.
😆
@ gunther:
Just proudly display your new ” I love Thelo” placard ( King Pie logo on the back) and you should be ok.
🙂
I have only ever been to Newlands once for a test match. No atmosphere, the crowd cheered more for France than the Bokke. But the atmosphere at one of the pubs on the way out was quite good. I still hope to get to Kings Park to see if the vibe there is as good as the Sharkies say it is. For me Ellis Park is still the best, especially when the Lions win. Loftus is also good when the Lions win. Last time I went to Loftus, and the Bulls beat the Lions, the atmosphere was a bit dead.
I agree with Dobson that the booing is not good. But often when the ref makes a call, and you are sitting on the opposite end of the field, you cannot see why he is blowing the player up. Sometimes when the call is blatantly wrong, then the crowd does vent its feelings.
I still love the England Ireland scenarios where the kicker, irrespective of team is granted an eerie silence. Would love to see that aspect returning to all rugby.
@ gunther:
Haha if you are at your best behavior at Newlands you will stick out like a sore thumb 😛
I have been to quite a number of tests at Newlands and have never noticed that the crowd cheered more for the opposition than for the Boks ( all blacks included).
Slow news day?
Looks like Cheika will coach the Wallabies (3 years) and the Tahs (till end of 2015).
Geez this guy can organize.
MacroBlouBul wrote:
Well, Gunther will stand out as he will most likely be dressed in his usual rugby uniform of kortbroek, brown grasshopper shoes, knee high light blue socks and 2 toned shirt.
🙂
@ robzim:
The only way we knew SA was coming onto the field was because we saw them running on. France got a much bigger cheer when they ran on. That particular day the crowd was just dead.
@ robzim:
I believe I am required to wear a tie on Saturday.
I’ll dig out my UCT one in order to blend in.
😆
Ackers went back to two props on the bench. Unfortunately Kwagga smith misses out
Lions:
15. Jaco van der Walt, 14. Ruan Combrinck, 13. Lionel Mapoe, 12. Howard Mnisi, 11. Courtnall Skosan, 10. Marnitz Boshoff, 9. Ross Cronje, 8. Warren Whiteley (c), 7. Derick Minnie, 6. Jaco Kriel, 5. Franco Mostert, 4. Martin Muller, 3. Ruan Dreyer, 2. Robbie Coetzee, 1. Schalk van der Merwe.
Replacements: 16. Armand van der Merwe, 17. Jacques van Rooyen, 18. Julian Redelinghuys, 19. Willie Britz, 20. Warwick Tecklenburg, 21. Mark Richards, 22. Harold Vorster
robzim wrote:
& shirt collar turned up …
26 @ gunther:
Maybe our friend from Philly can airfreight you his old SACOS tie.
😆
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