Tension does not abate this weekend as an exciting Currie Cup season goes into the semifinals and the unpredictable. We look at semifinals down the years, not that they have all that long a history.

Not that there is a lot of forecasting confidence in history in the case of semifinals. Western Province beware - the Blue Bulls have the best record of winning semifinals. Blue Bulls beware - Western Province have the second best record in semifinals. The Sharks and the Cheetahs have roughly the same semifinal records though venue favours the Sharks.

Western Province have never played the Blue Bulls in a semifinal at Newlands. They have met in a semifinal only once before - in 2006 in Pretoria. The Sharks have played the Free State in Durban five times in semifinals and won four of them.

Here are the appearances of the four teams in the 2009 semifinals:

Blue Bulls (a.k.a. Northern Transvaal): 15 semifinals, won 13
Free State Cheetahs (a.k.a. Orange Free State): 14 semifinals - won 6
Sharks (a.k.a. Natal): 15 semifinals - won 6
Western Province 16 semifinals - won 12

The Currie Cup system was frequently the plaything of administrators and changed from year to year, as it keeps on doing.

The first Currie Cup Final was in 1939, the first semifinal in 1969 and what a dramatic match it was!

In the list of semifinals below, you will find years when there was just one semifinal. In those years the Currie Cup teams were divided into three sections which meant that two of the section winners had to play off for a place in the Final.

In 1973 there were four sections and so two semifinals.

In 1979 the 12 Currie Cup teams were divided into two sections. Section A was made up of strong teams, Section B of weaker teams but the best of the weaker teams played semifinals against the best of the Section A teams, with a remarkable result in 1984. In that year the Free State had already received their allocation of tickets for the Final and had to rush them to Durban on the Monday after Wynand Claassen's B Section Natal side had beaten them.

In 1986 there were two sections, A and B, but only a single semifinal - between the second-placed side in the A section and the top of the B Section.

Then the semis were scrapped and 1 played 2 in the Final.

In 1996 the number of provinces was reduced to 14 and they all competed in two sections. This led to quarter-finals and then semifinals.

In 1998 there was a league system in which the top four teams qualified for the semifinals in which 1 played 4 and 2 played 3.

In 2003, the Rugby World Cup year, there were no semifinals.

In 2005 there were two sections and two semifinals. The top two teams in each section played each other in the semifinals.

In 2006 the teams were divided in two sections but Division 1, called the Currie Cup, had no chance at all of competing for the Currie Cup which suggests some kind of misnomer but instead the semifinals came from the Premier Division - 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3. That situation obtains still in 2009.

There was a change in determining home venues. It used to go by age or previous matches. It changed so that position on the log determined home venues as it would for the Final as well. That system continues in 2009.

One page two, we look at the semifinal results since 1969...

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