There are a few places left in Jake's team...

This year's Currie Cup is a done deal. The Blue Bulls will win the final on Saturday against the Free State Cheetahs.

The last elements of uncertainty in what has been an exhilarating Currie Cup disappeared on Saturday when the Lions were outplayed at Loftus and Western Province were exposed in the rain at Newlands.

This week Free State will travel to Loftus for the formality of the final. The Cheetahs will be favourites only in the eyes of sentimental fools.

The only team with a realistic chance this season of beating the Blue Bulls in their kraal at Loftus were the Lions, but when they lost Jannes Labus-chagne and then Kleinjan Tromp shortly before the weekend's semi-final, their hopes of an upset vanished.

Province, had they managed to play with a little more intelligence and won at home on Saturday, would have been the ones marching to Pretoria.

That's all it would have taken: a little intelligence. The way Free State played in the rain, you would have thought both teams had grown up in the Sahara, although Saturday's match was the third time this season the Cheetahs have played in wet weather.

Even if WP had won on Saturday, they would have posed about as much threat to the Bulls as the Free State will this week.

For all Cape Town's disparagement of the Bulls as a one-dimensional team, WP are no better. Fancy playing fancy rugby in the rain?

But enough of Saturday's losers, this week is all about the winners and Jake White will be one of them.

At least some of the Springbok coach's anxiety over possible injuries to his squad would have been alleviated by WP's defeat. The only way the WP contenders can be injured now is on the golf course or the beach.

The one uncertainty about rugby this weekend is whether Boland can withstand a Border onslaught at Wellington on Friday night in the other Currie Cup final (the one for B teams) and who will fill the last few places in the Springbok team, to be announced on Saturday evening at Loftus.

White will take 30 men with him to Europe and Argentina and, for most, the team is already settled.

White told the Rondebosch supporters club dinner at Kelvin on Friday that he would stick to tried and tested players, which means Lions hooker Schalk Brits, one of the season's finds, can forget about going along. But perhaps Gary Botha can pack his bags.

The Bulls hooker got the glory treatment in Sunday's Afrikaans Sunday press, and they always know a thing or two about Springboks teams in the week leading up the announcement.

There are still some doubts about scrumhalf back-up for Fourie du Preez and for flyhalf Jaco van der Westhuysen. Neil de Kock must still be in the scrumhalf loop, but the smart money is on Enrico Januarie.

Werner Greeff's uncertainty on Saturday night must have worried White, but is there anyone else? Andre Pretorius, perhaps? But not Derick Hougaard. Not yet at any rate, no matter how many thousand points he might kick on Saturday against the Cheetahs.

Willem de Waal? Now there's a thought. He has been the best, and most consistent, of the No 10s in the Currie Cup this year and in spite of White's reservations about test experience, the coach and selectors will win respect for picking the Free Stater.

He was secure in the wet at Newlands on Saturday night and was probably the difference between the two teams (the Free State tight five aside). On a soggy Lansdowne Road pitch against Ireland, White will feel more confident with De Waal at flyhalf, a man with flypaper hands and an unerring boot.

It all depends on the numbers. If White opts for three scrumhalves, De Kock is a shoo-in, but if it's three hookers, Botha will get the nod.