SA Rugby confirm expanded domestic calendar for the year

Cape Town — SA Rugby has announced the confirmed competition structure for the remainder of the 2022 rugby season, which will see an expansion of the Currie Cup First Division as well as the Women’s Premier Divisions and more provincial age-group rugby.

The South African franchise teams – the Bulls, Sharks, Stormers and Lions – are currently playing in the United Rugby Championship which culminates in the final on 18 June. The Currie Cup Premier Division final will take place one week later on 25 June.

In the First Division, seven local provincial teams will be joined by Georgia, Kenya and Zimbabwe in a brand-new competition.

The trio of international participants will join the defending champions, the Leopards, Griffons, South Western Districts, Boland, Eastern Province, Border and the Valke over a single round of action, with the final scheduled for the final weekend of June.

Last December, the General Council of the South African Rugby Union approved a motion that the top South African team in the First Division be automatically promoted to the Premier Division at the end of the 2022 Currie Cup season, creating an eight-team Premier Division.

Plans on a competition for the First Division sides in the last quarter of the year are also underway and will be confirmed in due course.

On the women’s front, the Golden Lions Women will join the six teams from the 2021 Women’s Premier Division – defending champions, the Border Ladies, as well as Western Province, EP Queens, Boland Dames, Blue Bulls Women and Sharks Women – in a new-look competition played over a single round from 23 April, with the final scheduled for 30 July.

The Women's First Division, featuring eight teams – Leopards, Valke, Limpopo, Pumas, Free State,