After Saturday's thrilling two-point victory for the Blue Bulls clinched them a home Final of the Currie Cup, captain Victor Matfield spoke about the match and pre-match nerves.

It has been a great year for Matfield. His Bulls won the Super 14, and the Springboks beat the B&I Lions and won the Tri-Nations. And now the Blue Bulls are on the way to the Currie Cup Final. For much of the season, the Blue Bulls' Springboks have been part of Springbok success and at times people have queried their reintegration in their provincial side.

Matfield said: "It is a great privilege for the Boks to play for the Blue Bulls. I, for one, was more nervous for today's match than for a Test match. There was so much pressure on us. First there was the pressure of having the favourites' tag and then there was the pressure of wanting to play the Final at Loftus."

On the match he said: "We knew it was not going to be easy. Playing at Newlands with all those supporters is never easy. We had some support but really the support was for Province. Winning was a great team effort."

Team effort and Morne Steyn. Matfield had praise of Steyn. "He is a great example to others. He spent two or three years on the bench but he was patient. Others may have gone elsewhere but he stuck it out and now he is reaping the fruit. Morne is an incredibly humble bloke.

"The fact is that tactical kicks are the most important aspect of modern rugby and Morne is so good there.

"We had two or three opportunities to score and turned the ball over. In fact we did not play well in the first half when we were on top."

Matfield found the standard of the two semifinals heartening. "The two semis show that the standard of rugby is very high if we can produce four teams of this standard. We have a lot of depth. It's now up to the younger players to step up to Super 14 standard."