Gary Lemke has a look ahead to the weekend’s action as the Proteas look set to secure a semi-final berth in the ICC Champions Trophy, while Liverpool are odds-on favourites to lift the Premier League.
PROTEAS TO FORMALLY BOOK SEMIS SPOT
The cricketing gods would really have to turn against South Africa to prevent them from cementing their place in the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy. It’s the only ICC tournament silverware the Proteas have won before – the inaugural tournament in 1998 – and whatever the result of Saturday’s game against England, they should progress to the last four. They might even get confirmation on Friday if Afghanistan fails to beat Australia. It’s more likely than not that the Proteas will be in the semis where their opponents next week will be either India or New Zealand.
TOP AND BOTTOM SEALED OFF IN EPL
With Liverpool at 1-100 to win the English Premier League and Arsenal second favourites at 22-1, the engraver can start working on the trophy, with 10 matches remaining. At the other end, Southampton’s fate is equally known and they will be joined in the Championship by two of Leicester, Ipswich and Wolves. The real interest therefore is around the top four and the Champions League spots and third-place Nottingham Forest host fourth-placed Man City in Saturday’s lunchtime kick-off. So often a game that springs the upset, but what would be the upset here? The eye-catcher of the round is at Old Trafford on Sunday afternoon when Man United host Arsenal.
DERBIES DOMINATE URC PROGRAMME
More red-blooded derbies highlight this weekend’s round of United Rugby Championship fixtures. The Bulls host the Stormers and the Lions are at home to the Sharks. Realistically, the spotlight is on Loftus where the Stormers have to start winning to get into the top eight, even though they have a soft set of fixtures, on paper, coming up. There was a figure doing the rounds on social media this week that South African players in the URC receive a minimum of R40,000 a month. Which doesn’t sound like a lot of money to me, given what their bodies endure. Still, there are three months of the URC remaining this season.
