2016 Currie Cup Premier Division

2016 Currie Cup Premier Division
Countries	South Africa
Date	August – October 2016
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The 2016 Currie Cup Premier Division will be the top tier of the second stage of the 2016 Currie Cup, the 78th edition of this annual South African rugby union competition organised by the South African Rugby Union. It will be played between August and October 2016 and will feature nine teams that qualified through the 2016 Currie Cup qualification competition.

Competition rules and information

There will be nine participating teams in the 2016 Currie Cup Premier Division.

Qualification

Main article: 2016 Currie Cup qualification

The six franchise teams will automatically qualify to the 2016 Currie Cup Premier Division, and will be joined by the three highest-placed non-franchise teams from the 2016 Currie Cup qualification stage. Points will not be carried over to the Premier Division.

Regular season and title play offs

The nine teams that qualify for the Premier Division will play against each other over the course of the competition, either at home or away. Teams will receive four points for a win and two points for a draw. Bonus points will be awarded to teams that score 4 or more tries in a game, as well as to teams that lose a match by 7 points or less. Teams will be ranked by log points, then points difference (points scored less points conceded).

The top four teams will qualify for the semi-finals, which will be followed by a final.

Teams

The teams that already qualified for the 2016 Currie Cup Premier Division are:

Blue Bulls

Eastern Province Kings

Free State Cheetahs

Golden Lions

Sharks

Western Province

Location of teams in the 2016 Currie Cup Premier Division

Team Listing

2016 Currie Cup Premier Division teams
Team	Sponsored Name	Stadium/s	Sponsored Name
Blue Bulls	Vodacom Blue Bulls	Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria	Loftus Versfeld
Eastern Province Kings	Eastern Province Kings	Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Port Elizabeth	Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
Free State Cheetahs	Toyota Free State Cheetahs	Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein	Free State Stadium
Golden Lions	Xerox Golden Lions	Ellis Park Stadium, Johannesburg	Emirates Airline Park
Sharks	Cell C Sharks	Kings Park Stadium, Durban	Growthpoint Kings Park
Western Province	DHL Western Province	Newlands Stadium, Cape Town	DHL Newlands

Three additional teams will join the competition from the 2016 Currie Cup qualification competition.

Log

The current log for the 2016 Currie Cup Premier Division is:

2016 Currie Cup Premier Division log
Pos	Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
1	Blue Bulls	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2	Eastern Province Kings	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Free State Cheetahs	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Golden Lions	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
5	Sharks	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
6	Western Province	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
7	Qualifier 1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
8	Qualifier 2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
9	Qualifier 3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Competition has not yet started.

Legend and Competition rules
Legend:
(Q)	Qualified to the Semi-Finals.		P = Games Played, W = Games Won, D = Games Drawn, L = Games Lost, PF = Points For, PA = Points Against, PD = Points Difference, TF = Tries For, TA = Tries Against, TB = Try Bonus Points, LB = Losing Bonus Points, Pts = Log Points
	Can still qualify to the Semi-Finals.
Competition rules:
Qualification: The top four teams will qualify to the Semi-Finals. Points breakdown: * 4 points for a win * 2 points for a draw * 1 bonus point for a loss by seven points or less * 1 bonus point for scoring four or more tries in a match

Round-by-round

The table below shows a team's progression throughout the season. For each round, each team's cumulative points total is shown with the overall log position in brackets.

Team Progression – 2016 Currie Cup Premier Division
Team	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	R9	QF	SF	F
Blue Bulls
Eastern Province Kings
Free State Cheetahs
Golden Lions
Sharks
Western Province
Qualifier 1
Qualifier 2
Qualifier 3
Key:	win	draw	loss	bye

Fixtures and results

Nine rounds of matches will be played, followed by quarter finals, semi-finals and the final.

The matches listed below will all be played during this stage. In addition, each team will play another fixture against each of the three qualifiers from the 2016 Currie Cup qualification tournament, for a total of eight fixtures per team.

		Blue Bulls	v	Eastern Province Kings	Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria

		Blue Bulls	v	Golden Lions	Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria

		Blue Bulls	v	Western Province	Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria

		Eastern Province Kings	v	Golden Lions	Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Port Elizabeth

		Eastern Province Kings	v	Western Province	Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Port Elizabeth

		Free State Cheetahs	v	Blue Bulls	Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein

		Free State Cheetahs	v	Eastern Province Kings	Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein

		Free State Cheetahs	v	Golden Lions	Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein

		Golden Lions	v	Sharks	Ellis Park Stadium, Johannesburg

		Golden Lions	v	Western Province	Ellis Park Stadium, Johannesburg

		Sharks	v	Blue Bulls	Kings Park Stadium, Durban

		Sharks	v	Eastern Province Kings	Kings Park Stadium, Durban

		Sharks	v	Free State Cheetahs	Kings Park Stadium, Durban

		Western Province	v	Free State Cheetahs	Newlands Stadium, Cape Town

		Western Province	v	Sharks	Newlands Stadium, Cape Town

Semi-Finals

		Team 1	v	Team 4

		Team 2	v	Team 3

Final

		Higher ranked semi-final winner	v	Lower ranked semi-final winner

See also

• 2016 Currie Cup First Division
• 2016 Currie Cup qualification
• 2016 Under-21 Provincial Championship
• 2016 Under-20 Provincial Championship
• 2016 Under-19 Provincial Championship