Varsity Cup sponsor blow, but corporates queue up
JOHANNESBURG: Despite the setback of losing Steinhoff as one of its major sponsors, the 2018 Varsity Cup will be as good as ever, promised chairman and South African Rugby Union CEO Jurie Roux yesterday when the 11th edition of the competition was launched.
The troubled retail giant withdrew their sponsorship a few weeks ago and last week also announced they would no longer be involved with the SA Sevens team as the main sponsor.
Roux, though, stated that while it was a big blow, main Varsity Cup sponsor FNB had stepped in to make up the shortfall.
“It’s a setback for the Varsity Cup and the Sevens team, but FNB has stepped up and helped us out in the interim,” said Roux.
“We’ll now go to market, but it would have been unfair on anyone else to be asked to step in so quickly.”
Regarding the Sevens team, the current World Series champions, Roux said: “We’re in the market. There are contracts that need to be considered and there are legal hoops we have to jump through but there is a long list of people interested in the Sevens team.
“They’re hot property at the moment, certainly hotter than the Springboks; they’re a transformed team, they’re a winning team and they’re a vibrant bunch.
“Also, there is the World Cup coming up this year and the Commonwealth Games; they’re a great sell and we hope to make an announcement soon.”
As the leaders in testing new laws and rules – like the once unusual Player 23 which has now become standard in just about all levels of rugby – the 2018 Varsity Cup will again trial a few new experiments. Among these are:
1. The Powerplay rule allows each team to expel two backline players from the opposition for a period of three minutes at any stage during the 80 minutes of the match. This will force both the attacking and defending team to think “out of the box” when it comes to trying to break down the opposition team’s defence and the defending team to use their players wisely in trying to keep out the attacking team.
2. The assistant referee (linesman) that is closest to where a scrum is awarded will move in from off his line to help the on-field referee to best manage the scrum – and prevent resets and get the call, either way, correct.
3. If the opposition doesn’t contest the throw-in at the line-out, the hooker will be allowed to throw the ball in crooked – or rather, it won’t have to be a straight throw, and the referee won’t blow his whistle for a skew throw-in.
The Sevens team are back in action in Australia this weekend, while the Varsity Cup kicks off next Monday with defending champions Tuks hosting Shimlas at 4.45pm at Tuks.