Text: Denver Keytle. Photos: Gallo Images/Getty Images/AFP. Article from the February 2012 issue of Sports Illustrated Magazine.
What started out as a fun initiative to promote varsity rugby has taken on a life of its own. As the Varsity Cup continues to grow, so it becomes increasingly professional.
Just when concerns were beginning to surface that the Varsity Cup tournament was a one-horse race and was becoming more formulaic and predictable every year, the rugby gods decided to turn things on its head last year. The University of Stellenbosch (Maties), who have won every single title since the tournament’s 2008 inception, couldn’t even crack a top four finish on the log, and so missed out on the playoffs. In turn, the University of Johannesburg, who somehow managed to finish fifth on the log in every single tournament up until 2011, ended up on top by a comfortable margin. The Universities of Cape Town (Ikeys), Free State (Shimlas) and Pretoria (Tuks) rounded out the rest of the top four.
On their home ground, the Cape Town students made light work of their Bloemfontein contemporaries in the semifinal, and the log-topping UJ were expected to do the same with their opponents from across the Jukskei. But the rugby gods were not done having their fun yet, and Tuks emerged victorious in that encounter, setting up the final against UCT in Pretoria. By all rights, the final should have been hosted at the Green Mile in Cape Town, but due to inadequate lighting at the venue, the fixture was shifted. Still, the indomitable Ikeys managed to stave off the Tuks threat and finally, after two previously unsuccessful final appearances, took home the silverware.
“I think we had a sense of desperation because we had been in a final before,” UCT coach Kevin Foote reveals. “At the same time, we had a lot of experience because the guys had played in two finals – or at least a semifinal – before, and maybe that gave us the edge over the Tukkies guys. We’re also comfortable travelling so we do quite well on the road.”
On 6 February, the epic semifinal clashes will play out once again in the opening round of the tournament, when UCT host the Shimlas in Cape Town and Tuks square off against UJ in Pretoria.
Shimlas are still on the hunt for their first-ever victory over the Ikeys, and UJ will be looking to avenge their semifinal loss, so the gloves will be off from the very second that shrill starting whistle first makes its way into the amped-up psyches of the players.
Elsewhere on the same day, a Maties side with everything to prove will tear into the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), while Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) play the Pukke from North-West University. And the most beautiful thing of all is that nobody can predict an outcome with 100% certainty because all stakeholders have been playing their cards close to their chests in terms of preparation, and most of last year’s star players have graduated to higher honours, leaving it up to the new breed to compete for bragging rights for their universities.
While the eight teams in the Varsity Cup retain their lead roles in an advertisement boasting the success of the tournament, there are extras doing their bit in the background. The Varsity Shield, a five-team, second-tier tournament no less fiercely contested, will be in its second year, while another level has been added to the tournament, called the Young Guns. As the name suggests, the latest addition is exclusively for players under 20 years old, and will run concurrently with the rest of the Varsity Cup. It will involve the same eight – albeit fresher-faced – teams as the main tournament, with their initial seeding decided by their senior counterparts. The Young Guns clashes are scheduled as curtain-raisers for the Varsity Cup fixtures, and will add more action to each game – great news for fans, excellent news for scouts. SA under-20 coach, Dawie Theron, will certainly be keeping a close eye on proceedings ahead of the IRB Junior World Championships, which will be held in Cape Town mid-year.
In addition to adding more tiers, organisers have also tightened regulations as far as player eligibility is concerned, in a bid to preserve the integrity of the competition. To sum them up, the rules basically state that players aren’t allowed to move from one university to another “without an exceptional academic reason”; players need to pass at least 30% of their subjects; and players who have played in four or more Super Rugby matches, or in a Test for the Springboks, will be declared ineligible for both Varsity Cup and Shield rugby.
But it doesn’t stop there, because the tournament will once again be a proving ground for some subtle rule changes – this time a new points-scoring system, with the backing of the IRB. While a try will still score you five points, a conversion will now be worth three points. Penalty kicks and drop-goals, on the other hand, will only be worth two points. The aim? To encourage more tries. Will it work? That remains to be seen.
“I think it’s going to be tricky,” says Foote. “It’s not really going to change our mindset at UCT, because we try to play quite expansively. But I think it’s going to put a lot more pressure on the referees, because if guys are instructed to give away penalties because teams are going to kick them, then referees are going to have to make some tough calls regarding carding people.
“While it might encourage running rugby, I think you could lose that closeness of competition, where you have teams with 100% goal-kickers still keeping them in the game. I don’t know how that’s going to play out. Maybe it’ll be a success?”
Defending the Title
“We won it last year, but now we’re trying to put that out of our heads and we want to come back with the same hunger and intensity we had in 2011, to make sure that’s not a one-off wonder,” says Foote. “If we can defend the title, like Maties did for the first three years, that would make us a special team.”
Retaining the cup will certainly be a challenge in 2012, with Maties still smarting from their fifth-place finish last year and out to prove a point; the rising threat of a John Mitchell-influenced UJ and Heyneke Meyer-influenced Tuks; and the unpredictability of the rest of the teams, especially Shimlas. What this will ensure, however, is that interest in the tournament doesn’t wane.
“Maties not winning it again wasn’t good for them; obviously they’re going to fix that this year, but it was good for the tournament, because it was getting a bit stale, the fact that they’d won three out of three,” Foote opines. “But no-one expected them to not make the playoffs, and it was a matter of one log point in the end. All the teams have come up a helluva lot – Shimlas, UJ, Tukkies, all of them – and it’s great that everyone’s a lot more competitive.
“UJ especially. The whole Lions union is obviously on an up, I think John Mitchell has added a lot, but Hugo van As is a very good coach and I think he’s got quite a good, structured, experienced team together there, so I see them as a massive threat this year. They were quite good at the Club Champs as well, and UJ isn’t the easiest ground to play on.
“At Tuks, they have Heyneke who’s got massive amounts of experience and you can only learn from him. Much the same way UCT draws on John Dobson and Robbie Fleck – I’m in their ear the whole time asking questions. It’s great learning from the sort of guys who have been there, done that, and played at the highest level.”
The Way Forward
In South Africa’s rugby landscape, the Varsity Cup filled a massive chasm that wasn’t properly acknowledged prior to 2008. In that wilderness between schools rugby and provincial structures, a lot of talent was getting lost. Club rugby – as it has done for many years – provides an adequate home for these players, with challenging, high-intensity rugby and surprisingly professional setups, but lacks the exposure the players need to crack the big time.
Case in point: Demetri Catrakilis. While his name is distinctive, he only really grabbed attention when he appeared for UCT in the 2011 Varsity Cup, with his unerring boot helping them to the title. But apart from staunch club rugby supporters, hardly anyone was aware that young Catrakilis was slotting kick after kick the previous year for False Bay rugby club.
The Constantia-based club was newly promoted to the WP Super League A in 2010 and came up against some stiff competition, but managed a top-three finish thanks to their trusty Hellenic playmaker.
The jury’s out on this one, but the smart money says that if Catrakilis had spent another year at False Bay instead of making the move to UCT and the Varsity Cup, he might still be playing club rugby, instead of bolstering the remarkable pivot depth at the Stormers. He had an impressive Currie Cup, and was duly rewarded with a call-up to the Stormers squad, and if he runs out for them this year, will have made a gigantic leap from the relative anonymity of club rugby, to the biggest tournament in the southern hemisphere. His fast-tracked success may be an anomaly, perhaps, but who knows how many more anomalies are out there, waiting to be unearthed?
The only proviso being that the Varsity Cup remains healthy and uncompromised. At the time of going to print, Varsity Cup MD Duitser Bosman was nigh-impossible to contact, but we did get very well acquainted with his voicemail greeting: “I can’t take your call right now, because we’re busy getting ready for Varsity Cup 2012… which will be the biggest of them all.” Sounds promising.
Class of 2011
Currie Cup graduates (from 2011 VC to 2011 Currie Cup)
UCT Demetri Catrakilis – WP
UCT Nick Fenton-Wells – WP
UCT Nizaam Carr – WP
TUKS Wesley Dunlop – Leopards/Bulls
TUKS Warwick Tecklenburg – Bulls
TUKS Marnitz Boshoff – Bulls
TUKS Arno Botha – Bulls (Also captained the SA U20 team)
MATIES Johann Sadie – WP/Bulls
MATIES Berton Klaasen – WP
MATIES Tertius Daniller – WP
MATIES Heinrich Steyl – WP
SHIMLAS Pieter Labuschagne – Free State
SHIMLAS Marcel van der Merwe – Free State
SHIMLAS Enrico Acker – Cheethas
UJ Rudy Paige – Lions
Fixtures
Monday, 6th February – Round One
Tuks vs UJ Tuks Rugby Stadium, Pretoria 5pm (SSI)
UCT vs Shimlas UCT Rugby Fields, Cape Town 7pm (SSI)
Maties vs TUT Danie Craven Stadium, Stellenbosch 7pm
NMMU vs Pukke NMMU Stadium, Port Elizabeth 7pm
Monday, 13th Febraury – Round Two
TUT vs Tuks UT Stadium, Tshwane 5pm (SSI)
Pukke vs Maties Fanie du Toit Sports Grounds, Potch 7pm (SSI)
UJ vs UCT UJ Stadium, Johannesburg 7pm
Shimlas vs NMMU Xerox Shimla Park, Bloemfontein 7pm
Monday, 20 February – Round Three
UJ vs NMMU UJ Stadium, Johannesburg 5pm (SSI)
Tuks vs Pukke Tuks Rugby Stadium, Pretoria 7pm (SSI)
Maties vs Shimlas Danie Craven Stadium, Stellenbosch 7pm
TUT vs UCT TUT Stadium, Tshwane 7pm
Monday, 27 February – Round Four
NMMU vs UCT Xerox NMMU Stadium, Port Elizabeth 5pm (SSI)
Shimlas vs UJ Xerox Shimla Park, Bloemfontein 7pm (SSI)
Maties vs Tuks Danie Craven Stadium, Stellenbosch 7pm
Pukke vs TUT Fanie du Toit Sports Grounds, Potch 7pm
Monday, 5 March – Round Five
UCT vs Pukke UCT Rugby Fields, Cape Town 5pm (SSI)
Tuks vs Shimlas Tuks Rugby Stadium, Pretoria 7pm (SSI)
UJ vs TUT UJ Stadium, Johannesburg 7pm
NMMU vs Maties Xerox NMMU Stadium, Port Elizabeth 7pm
Monday, 12 March – Round Six
Shimlas vs TUT Xerox Shimla Park, Bloemfontein 5pm (SSI)
Maties vs UCT Danie Craven Stadium, Stellenbosch 7pm (SSI)
Tuks vs NMMU Tuks Rugby Stadium, Pretoria 7pm
Pukke vs UJ Fanie du Toit Sports Grounds, Potch 7pm
Monday, 19 March – Round Seven
UCT vs Tuks UCT Rugby Fields, Cape Town 5pm (SSI)
UJ vs Maties UJ Stadium, Johannesburg 7pm (SSI
Pukke vs Shimlas Fanie du Toit Sports Grounds, Potch 7pm
TUT vs NMMU TUT Stadium, Tshwane 7pm
Monday, 26 March – Semifinals
Semifinal One Log position One vs Log position Four 4.30pm (SSI)
Semifinal Two Log position Two vs Log position Three 7pm (SSI)
Monday, 9 April – Final
Semifinal One winner vs Semifinal Two winner 7pm (SSI)
