The four best teams in the competition remain, and the two Vodacom Super Rugby semifinals that will be played on Saturday should both be high quality contests that could be decided by one odd bounce of the ball or a single act of genius.

The home teams, the Emirates Lions and the Hurricanes, must start as favourites, with the latter surely the favoured team to go one better than last year by winning the competition. If they get past the Chiefs at the Westpac Stadium on Saturday, it will be difficult to keep them away from the trophy as they will be playing against a team that has to travel to New Zealand from Africa.

The stakes are high though either way, for a Chiefs win could see them travelling back to Africa if the Lions win – and then the Lions would be strong favourites to become the new champions and join the Vodacom Bulls as the only team to win Super Rugby in the professional era. Transvaal’s Super 10 triumph in 1993 was in the amateur age when the competition wasn’t taken quite as seriously, so it doesn’t count.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">HEAD TO HEAD: <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SuperRugby?src=hash">#SuperRugby</a> Semi-final #2 backrow rivalry <a href="https://twitter.com/LionsRugbyUnion">@LionsRugbyUnion</a> v <a href="https://twitter.com/Highlanders">@Highlanders</a> Jo&#39;burg Sat 30 July <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LIOvHIG?src=hash">#LIOvHIG</a> <a href="https://t.co/c4t8RYrHON">pic.twitter.com/c4t8RYrHON</a></p>&mdash; Super Rugby (@SuperRugby) <a href="https://twitter.com/SuperRugby/status/758921337335259136">July 29, 2016</a></blockquote>

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If it weren’t for the travel factor, the Chiefs do look like the one side with the all-round game to challenge the Hurricanes. There are many who see the early semifinal on Saturday as the de-facto final.

The Highlanders do appear to be their bogey team at present, but against most other opposition the Chiefs tend to give better than they get. Hopefully the travel to and from South Africa hasn’t sapped their energy too much as the Wellington confrontation should be a high quality game if the recent final league games in the Kiwi conference are anything to go on.

The Lions, who have confirmed that they are the top South African team by some distance, belong in top company. Since they were buried by the Hurricanes at home in the last weekend of April, the Lions have bristled with intent and have responded in fine style to any question marks over their capabilities.

Many teams would have had psychological problems to deal with after conceding a 50 pointer, but not the Lions. Of course, it has helped that they returned to full strength after that. The fact they played without a few regular front-row players in that game was a big mitigating circumstance in the defeat to the Hurricanes, as the Lions do rely strongly on solid scrum ball as a starting point for the game they play.

The scrums will be important against the Highlanders, but even more important will be the Lions’ ability to front and match the Highlanders’ kicking game. It was their kicking game that won the Dunedin team the competition last year, and it has again been to the fore in 2016.

A few weeks ago their kicking game was the Lions’ potential Achilles heel. It may still not exactly be their strength. But that aspect of play has come on in leaps and bounds over the past few weeks, and perhaps the focus that Springbok coach Allister Coetzee ensured was put on the potential weaknesses of his halfbacks, Elton Jantjies and Faf de Klerk, who both play for the Lions, helped in that regard.

The Lions played clever rugby against the Crusaders last week, and it is true that some of their better performances of the season were built off a pragmatic foundation. Think of their win over the Sharks in Durban, and their excellent wet weather annihilation of the Blues.

Annihilation is a word that should crop up often when the Lions are spoken about. They have annihilated many teams this season – how many teams put 50 points over the Bulls at Loftus? Since the big defeat to the Hurricanes, when they themselves were annihilated, it is hard to recall when last they came close to losing a game when at full strength. They sent a second string to Buenos Aires for the one defeat they have suffered since then.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Here&#39;s your team for the Semi Final against the Lions in Jburg! Let&#39;s go landers! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LIOvHIG?src=hash">#LIOvHIG</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WeAreHighlanders?src=hash">#WeAreHighlanders</a> <a href="https://t.co/dVT4SHXGT8">pic.twitter.com/dVT4SHXGT8</a></p>&mdash; The Highlanders (@Highlanders) <a href="https://twitter.com/Highlanders/status/758530730326581248">July 28, 2016</a></blockquote>

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That is an indication of how good they are, and like against the Crusaders last week, they should start as favourites again at home, which means they have their altitude advantage, against a team that has done a lot of travelling recently. They will know when they start their semifinal what they are playing for. A trip to Wellington to play the Hurricanes in a final might be too much of an obstacle for them, but a home final against the Chiefs will see the Lions start with one hefty paw already on the trophy.

SEMI-FINAL SCHEDULE

Hurricanes v Chiefs (Wellington, Saturday 9.35am)

Both teams have experienced injury problems since last week’s excellent performances in dispatching the two South African coastal teams, the Sharks and the Stormers. The Hurricanes may particularly miss their inspirational captain, Dane Coles. There aren’t noticeable weaknesses in either side, but the Chiefs might just have an edge in physicality. Just about everything stuck for them last week in their high quality performance at Newlands. The question is whether they can get up again after flying back from South Africa? The Hurricanes have bracketed Coles, their inspirational skipper, which is an indication of how valuable he is to them as Coles looked in a bad way when he was injured against the Sharks last week. The Chiefs have made three changes, all of which appear to strengthen their side.

Prediction: Hurricanes to win.

Emirates Lions v Highlanders (Dunedin, Saturday 3pm)

The Lions’ kicking game is what will come under scrutiny. They’ve improved a lot in recent times, but the Highlanders have been in a league of their own. The Lions have altitude on their side and that makes a big difference in play-off fixtures. The key for the Lions might be to hit the Highlanders hard at the kick-off, as they did the Crusaders last week. Once the Lions get their game going they are difficult to stop. The Lions have made only the one enforced change, with Ruan Ackermann replacing the injured Warren Whiteley and Jaco Kriel assuming the captaincy. Highlanders coach Jamie Joseph has shuffled his pack a bit and named a six/two split between forwards and backs on the bench in a move that is being interpreted as designed to combat the altitude bogey. The Highlanders won the previous match between the sides in Dunedin quite easily, 34-15, but the last time these teams met in Johannesburg the Lions came back from a 20-3 deficit to win.