Arm of Province goes to the wall
Homeboys are all fired to make their mark
WESTERN Province Rugby (Pty) Limited was placed under final liquidation in a court ruling handed down yesterday.
The Western Province Rugby Football Union had earlier obtained a provisional order to have its commercial arm placed into provisional liquidation.
Judge Ashley BinnsWard’s judgment listed certain evidence placed on record by the union. This included that the company’s liabilities exceeded its assets by over R6.3-million and that it sustained an operating loss of more than R4.1-million after tax in 2014. The following year the figure amounted to more than R12.7-million.
Cape Town marketing company‚ Aerios‚ opposed the liquidation. It had entered into an advertising deal with the company in 2011 which gave it commercial rights at Newlands Stadium in Cape Town.
But Aerios and Western Province Rugby had been locked in a dispute over the contract and the company claimed it was owed more than R70-million. Aerios also claimed that the bankruptcy claim was an attempt to get out of their deal.
“A winding-up of [Western Province Rugby (Pty) Ltd] would not‚ of itself‚ result in the termination of its contractual obligations to Aerios. Aerios would not have the right to compel specific performance‚ but the liquidators would have to decide whether to abide by the contracts or to terminate them.
“The liquidators would have a duty to make their decision with conscientious regards to the best interests of the creditors. An election by a liquidator to terminate the Aerios contracts would be regarded as equivalent to repudiating them‚” the judge said. — The Times
WALTER Sisulu University (WSU) will not just be there to make up the numbers when the expanded FNB Varsity Shield presented by Steinhoff International competition kicks off in just over a month and a half’s time.
The competition getting under way on February 9 has increased from five to seven teams and will see three Eastern Cape university sides taking part for the first time.
“We are not here to just add to the numbers, we are here to come and play and win as many games as we can,” said WSU head coach Sipho Metula.
“Our main goal is to hopefully get through to the final and maybe even win the competition.”
Along with WSU, Rhodes University will also be making their debut in the competition, while the third local team in the mix is regular Varsity Shield side Fort Hare.
“We are very excited, especially because this is our first time in the competition and there is a lot at stake to play for,” admitted Metula.
The first game of the season is in fact set to be a blockbuster clash between the two massive rivals, Fort Hare and WSU at the Davidson Rugby Stadium in Alice and will be the perfect way to get proceedings under way.
Fort Hare will be eager to show WSU what Varsity Shield rugby is all about while the visitors will want to impress on debut and gain some muchneeded confidence for what will be a very tough competition.
“The game against Fort Hare is a very important one, they are our biggest rivals, it is the game we really want to win and with it being the first of the season it is important for us to get off to a good start,” explained Metula.
“There is going to be a big crowd at the game and the crowd at Fort Hare will be backing the home team, but we have our own campuses around the region and we will try to get as many of our supporters as possible to the game to get behind us.”
The last time these two teams met was in the Border Super League earlier in the year, where in a televised clash WSU edged their rivals 22-18 in a tightly contested match.
“We beat them in the league earlier this year, so it could be a case of them coming for a bit of revenge and that just adds to the occasion,” said Metula.
The WSU team will also be coming off a solid 2016 season where they just missed out on the Border Super League title, losing by a solitary point in the final to Swallows, while during the University Sports South Africa (USSA) rugby week in July, which they hosted in East London, WSU won the C division, beating Rhodes in the final.
“What is really good for us is that 95% of the team that we played at the USSA games are still with the team, so we have not had to start from scratch and have a lot of continuity,” said Metula.
Rhodes first match will be against Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) in Tshwane, while their second match will be the following week against Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) at the Rhodes Great field.
After Fort Hare and WSU open their seasons, Fort Hare will play another home match against the University of the Western Cape (UWC) while WSU will host their first home match at the Buffalo City Stadium in East London, which will be their homeground for the competition, against the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
The Fort Hare v WSU game will also be televised live on SuperSport.