The 2017 Gold Cup was the second season of the Gold Cup competition since its name change, having previously been known as the Community Cup. The competition was the top competition for non-university

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

clubs in South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe. The 2017 competition retained the same timeslot as the 2016 edition, taking place between 9 September and 29 October 2017.

Competition rules and information

The format of the Gold Cup was the same as the

Rugby World Cup The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams. The tournament is administered by World Rugby, the sport's international governing body. The winners are awarded the Webb E ...

. The teams were divided into four pools, each containing five teams. Each team played four pool games, facing all the other teams in their pools once, with two of those matches being home games and two being away games. The winner and runner-up of each pool entered the play-off stage, which consisted of quarter finals, semi-finals and the final. The winner of each pool met the runner-up of a different pool in a quarter final, at the home venue of the pool winner. The winner of each quarter-final progressed to the semi-finals and the semi-final winners to the final, which was held at the home venue of the finalist with the best record in the pool stages.

Qualification

Defending champions Rustenburg Impala qualified for the 2017 Gold Cup competition. They will be joined by the highest-placed non-university clubs from the club leagues of South Africa's fourteen provincial unions, Limpopo, Namibia and Zimbabwe, plus two wildcard spots.

Teams

The following teams qualified for the 2017 Gold Cup:

Team Listing

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gold Cup 2017

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