Disappointed Sharks coach John Plumtree believes the Cheetahs can go ahead and win the Currie Cup this year.

The Sharks coach didn't want to offer any excuses after his team suffered a shock 21-23 defeat at the hands of the Cheetahs in their tightly contested semifinal in Durban on Saturday.

"I believe the Cheetahs can win the Final, whoever, who or where they play," Plumtree said.

The Cheetahs will face the Blue Bulls in Pretoria on October 31, after the Bulls edged Western Province 21-19 in an equally dramatic semifinal in Cape Town later on Saturday.

Plumtree was speaking to the media before he knew the result of the Newlands thriller.

"I said it in the week that the Cheetahs are a good side and at the breakdowns they move numbers to the contact areas and were more committed," he said.

With both teams scoring two tries each, it was the Cheetahs flyhalf Jacques-Louis Potgieter who scored the winning drop-goal for his team in the dying seconds of the game to secure a close 23-21 victory after the Sharks were in command 15-3 at half-time.

Cheetahs flank Heinrich Brussow, with speculations again running rife this weekend about a possible move to the Sharks, was simply outstanding on the ground and played a massive role in the Cheetahs splendid victory.

Cheetahs coach Naka Drotske said it would have been difficult to decide who he most preferred to face in a Final.

"Western Province at Newlands is difficult and so are the Blue Bulls at Loftus, so it will be tough to tackle either on their home ground," he said, also speaking before the result of the other semifinal was know.

"I wasn't happy at half-time being down 3-15, because we should have scored earlier [when Ashley Johnson was stopped on the tryline] and then when they scored just before half-time [Ruan Pienaar's try] it set us back, but I felt we were still in the game and must just use our chances," he said.

The Cheetahs, however, struck back with prop WP Nel's try in the 52nd minute to make it 13-18 and then came the intercept try by flyhalf Jacques-Louis Potgieter in the 59th minute to give the Cheetahs the lead for the first time with 20-18.

"I felt Jacques' try was the turning point for us," said Drotske.

"There were a few lucky moments in the game but, after losing our first four games, the players did well to still make the play-offs, although there were two games earlier on in the competition that we should have won," he said.

Plumtree credited the Cheetahs with a more all-round team effort and said the returning of the Boks didn't gel as well as last year when they won the trophy by beating the Bulls 14-9 in the final at Kings Park.

"There's nothing much to say," said Plumtree shortly after the end of the game where the Sharks couldn't use home ground advantage to secure a home final in two weeks' time.

"There were not many points [facets] in the game where we were better off," he said. "We were simply outplayed by a better team," Plumtree complimented the Cheetahs who struggled to sneak into the play-offs, but now have a real chance to win back the trophy they last won in 2007 with a 20-18 victory over the Lions in Bloemfontein.

"We really struggled to get into the game and just couldn't get our own game going," he said.

There were numerous problems at scrum time and Plumtree said it's frustrating when it comes to referees' interpretation of the laws.

"What you [the media] don't understand is that there is a lot of illegal stuff going on in the scrums," he said referring to the first scrum where Cheetahs prop WP Nel pressurised the Sharks' Beast Mtawarira to such an extent that it immediately led to a penalty for the Free Staters.

"We'll keep our feet on the ground and start on Monday to prepare for the final," Drotske said.