The men from North West will now travel to Kempton Park for their semi-final against the table-topping Valke, while Eastern Province will be in action in Welkom against the Griffons, who finished second on the log.

The Valke did very well in a cold, wet and windy Gqeberha to beat Eastern Province by 22-3 on Friday afternoon, with Mbembe Payi (fullback) scoring two first-half tries for the East Randers.

They visitors led 17-0 at the break and managed to keep the Elephants at bay in the second half, as the conditions worsened. It was the first game in which they didn’t grab a try-scoring bonus-point, but the crucial victory would have made up for that.

While it was the Valke’s first win over EP in Nelson Mandela Bay since 2017, JP Immelman will be especially pleased with his team’s defence as they managed to keep the hosts tryless.

The Griffons ran riot in Welkom and beat the Border Bulldogs by 80-21 in their final pool match, scoring 12 tries in the process to ensure they enter the semi-finals high on confidence.

Willem van den Hever and Quan Eymann each scored a hat-trick of tries for the hosts, while Andrew Kota contributed 30 points with two tries and 10 conversions.

The Griffons, who scored at a point per minute, led by 40-14 at the break and doubled their points’ tally in the second half.

In George, the Leopards started very well and led 19-7 at the break after outscoring their hosts by three tries to one, but the Eagles fought back to level the scores with two tries in the first 15 minutes after the break.

However, the Leopards scored their fourth try with just under 20 minutes to go and hung onto their lead to move up to fourth from fifth on the log in the final round, and in doing so, knocked SWD out of the title race.

Venues and kick-off times of the two semi-finals will be confirmed in due course.

Scorers:

Eastern Province 3 (0) Valke 22 (17)
EP – Penalty goal: Shirwin Cupido.
Valke – Tries: Mbembe Payi (2), Wernich Aucamp. Conversions: Ezrick Alexander, Keagan Fortune. Penalty goal: Fortune.

NovaVit Griffons 80 (40) Border Bulldogs 21 (14)
Griffons – Tries: Willem van den Hever (3), Quan Eymann (3), Jandre de Beer, Andrew Kota (2), Simon Westraadt, Mango Ngundue, Kyle Cyster. Conversions: Kota (10).
Border – Tries: Soso Xakalashe, Hlumelo Pantyo, Ryan Maree. Conversions: Maxwell Klaasen (3).

Phangela SWD Eagles 19 (7) Leopards 26 (19)
SWD – Tries: Marquit September, Hlomla Zondani, Clive Kruger. Conversions: Keegan Schaefer (2).
Leopards – Tries: Ghudian van Reenen, Zack Serfontein, Indiphile Tyeda, Andre Grobler. Conversions: Shaun-Christian Baxter (3).