Varsity rugby heading to East London
ELECTRIC university rugby action is heading to East London as the University Sports South Africa (Ussa) rugby week takes place in the city from Monday to Friday next week.
Universities from across the country will take part as 29 teams contest four divisions.
The Eastern Cape will be represented by sides from NMMU, University of Fort Hare, Walter Sisulu University (WSU) and Rhodes University.
NMMU will battle it out for the cup in the A division with Varsity Cup heavyweights like North West University, Stellenbosch University, University of Pretoria, University of Cape Town, and last year’s champions the University of Johannesburg.
“The boys are looking forward to it and we really want to do well,” NMMU coach David Maidza said.
“We are bringing a number of young players down who will be playing in their first Ussa tournament, so I am looking forward to see how these guys do.
“This tournament is a good test to have every year as it allows us to blood new players and also to see where we stand and what we can do to improve.”
Fort Hare will be competing on the Shield side of things and they will be aiming for top honours.
They will face fellow Varsity Shield sides University of the Witwatersrand, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Tshwane University of Technology and Univeristy of the Western Cape, so things should be particularly feisty.
“The guys are looking forward to the week, they did not do very well in the Varsity Shield earlier this year so they want to do well and lay down a mark at the Ussa week,” Fort Hare coach Ziniko Dumathi said.
“The team has been training hard and we are going to be ready for the week.”
“It is going to be a tough test against strong teams but we believe we can do well.”
WSU will compete in the C division again after triumphing in the same division last year.
With teams like Rhodes and Cape Peninsula University of Technoloy in the mix it will be a challenging division to play in.
“We did very well last year and won in the final so our goal is to do the same this year and win it again,” WSU coach Sipho Metula said.
“The guys are hard at work getting ready for the week and we won’t have any excuses not to play well,” he said.
There will also be a D section catering for some of the smaller university teams and some university second teams.
In all, a great week of rugby is on the cards and teams will be going all out for top honours.
The three days of rugby action next week will be played across East London on Monday, Wednesday and Friday with main matches at the BCM Stadium.
The boys are looking forward to it and we really want to do well