<Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This section needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (May 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This section needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (May 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> The Currie Cup is one of the oldest rugby competitions, with the first games played in 1889 but it was only in 1892 that it became officially known as the Currie Cup . The competition had its humble beginnings as an inter-province competition in 1884, but when the South African Rugby Board was founded in 1889 it decided to organize a national competition that would involve representative teams from all the major unions . The original participating unions were Western Province, Griqualand West, Transvaal and Eastern Province . The first tournament was held in Kimberley and was won by Western Province . For a prize they received a silver cup donated by the South African Rugby Board, now displayed at the SA Rugby Museum in Cape Town . The story of how the Currie Cup came to be comes from the first overseas rugby team to tour South Africa in 1891, The British Isles, who carried with them a particularly precious bit of cargo . Among the bags, boots and balls was a golden cup given to them by Sir Donald Currie, owner of Union - Castle Lines, the shipping company that transported them to the southern tip of Africa . Sir Donald was clear with his instructions--hand this trophy over to the team in South Africa that gives you the best game; and after a spirited display where the unbeaten British Lions narrowly won 3 - 0, Griqualand West became the first ever holders of the Currie Cup . They then handed the trophy over to the South African rugby board and it became the floating trophy for the Currie Cup competition . The inaugural Currie Cup tournament was thus held in 1892 with Western Province earning the honour of holding it aloft as the first official winners . </P> <P> The competition missed a few years here and there for reasons such as war and the like, but in 1968 it became a fully fledged annual showpiece . Western Province dominated the competition's early years, and by 1920 the team from Cape Town had already secured the trophy 10 times . Only Griqualand West could halt the rampant WP side and win the trophy in 1899 and 1911 . In 1922 the Transvaal won the competition for the first time, however Western Province would continue to dominate the Currie Cup throughout the 1920s and 1930s, winning the trophy a further 4 times and sharing it twice with Border . In 1939 the trophy returned to Johannesburg for only the second time after Transvaal defeated Western Province in Cape Town . This was the first time WP had lost a final at their home ground Newlands . The Currie Cup went into hiatus during the Second World War but resumed in 1946 when Northern Transvaal claimed their first ever trophy by beating Western Province 11 - 9 in the final at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria . The late 1940s and early 1950s were dominated by Transvaal who would win the trophy in 1950 and 1952, however in 1954 the Currie Cup would finally return south following Western Province's narrow 11 - 8 victory over Northern Transvaal in the final at Newlands in Cape Town . </P>

Where did the currie cup get its name