Two giants of South Africa rugby - Juan Smith and Schalk Burger - will face off in the Currie Cup this weekend © Getty Images

Schalk Burger and Juan Smith meet in a colossal battle of the loose forwards in the Currie Cup semi-final between WP and Free State this weekend, Stephen Nell reports for Sport24.

"Schalk Burger and Juan Smith should be Springbok colleagues within a few weeks, but before then a colossal battle of the loose forwards is looming in Saturday’s Currie Cup semifinal at Newlands.

"Both captains have a talismanic effect on their teams. Burger’s return last week paved the way for Western Province to win the first game in their last five clashes against big unions as they comfortably saw off the Sharks.

"Smith’s presence in the Super 14 this year led to an average swing of 38 points in favour of the Cheetahs. The average score of games that Smith played this year was 30-24 to the Cheetahs, while in his absence it was 12-44 against them in four tour games.

"Burger was the captain of a Stormers team that reached the Super 14 final for the first time in the history of the Cape franchise this year."

Sport24's Rob Houwing writes on the likely relief at the Sharks and Western Province over the availability of their currently first-choice No 2s.

"In many respects they represent the stabilising fulcrum of the scrum, their lineout throwing and appreciation of the associated calls and nuances in that department is supposed to assure and mature like a fine cabernet sauvignon, and they are commonly expected, like cricket’s wicketkeepers, to become involved in the general gee-up process for the collective troops.

"So I can think of a few people in Durban and Cape Town, ahead of Saturday’s Absa Currie Cup semi-finals at these coastal hubs, who have heaved well-developed sighs of relief that Messrs Bismarck du Plessis, for the Sharks, and Western Province’s Deon Fourie will be at their stations against the Blue Bulls and Cheetahs respectively.

"In each case, possible absence might have affected the likelihood of both teams progressing to the October 30 showpiece more substantially than is realised."

The end of the league stage of the Currie Cup season brought to a conclusion what on the face of it can only be described as a horrific year for the Lions, Gavin Rich writes for SuperRugby.co.za.

"The current Lions team lacks when it comes to experience, talent and skill, but they did deliver this season on the mission statement that was issued by White at the press conference which I attended in Johannesburg in June where the Winning Ways partnership with the Lions was announced.

To refresh memories, [Jake] White was adamant the union did not have the players to be talking about trophies, and he handed out a couple of pages of statistics that pointed to the Lions’ lack of physical conditioning. But there were two things that White said that stick clearly in the memory: firstly, he promised that he would improve the Lions’ defensive system, which he rated as hopeless, and secondly he would ensure that they would play to the last whistle of every game."

Western Province will go out on Saturday to do correctly what the British and Irish Lions did wrong in their recent Test match against the Springboks at Loftus Versfeld, writes Gavin Rich in the Cape Argus.

"Anyone who cares to go through a video of the first half of the recent second Test match at the venue of Saturday's big north-south domestic showdown between WP and the Blue Bulls should be quite startled by at least one aspect of those opening 40 minutes - seldom has a team dominated as comprehensively as the Lions did and yet only be eight points ahead on the scoreboard.

"...With De Waal in the side, there should never be a reason for WP to run from their own half for the simple reason that they have a kicker who can always ensure they have good positions to attack from."