Varsity Rugby is almost upon us in 2013, with three Western Province-based universities once again taking part in the 13-team Varsity Cup and Shield tournaments.
Eighty-two matches are set to take place across four different competitions in the 2013 Varsity Rugby season – as the Cup, Shield, Young Guns and Koshuis tournaments get set to combine to form the biggest student-based rugby competition in the world.
Former Varsity Cup winners, FNB Maties and FNB UCT, will be looking to bring the cup back to the Cape after FNB UP-Tuks’ triumph last year, whilst the exciting FNB UWC outfit – under the tutelage of Peter de Villiers – will be a team to watch out for in the Varsity Shield.
Looking ahead to the season, Varsity Cup Managing Director Duitser Bosman said: “We have a unique fixtures tool, developed by top mathematicians, which allows us, fairly, to draw up the new fixtures taking all permutations and the Varsity Cup constitution into account.”
Twenty-three matches will be televised on SuperSport in the 2013 season and Bosman revealed: “It’s written into our constitution that the top two teams from the previous seasons would have five matches televised, teams three and four would have four televised games, teams five and six would get three opportunities on television and the seventh- and eighth-placed sides would get two games on TV.
“Thus, Tuks and the Maties will head up the list of televised matches… but it’s also pretty exciting to have a new team, in the shape of Wits, the Varsity Shield winners, in the Cup competition.”
This is the sixth season of Varsity Cup and Steinhoff Koshuisrugby action, with eight universities taking part in both competitions. The Varsity Shield first began in 2011, with five teams competing, and the Varsity Young Guns tournament – a students-only, Under-20 competition – joined the fray last year for the first time.
FNB Wits will, for the first time, feature in the Varsity Cup in 2013, having won promotion as Varsity Shield winners last year. The FNB TUT Vikings, the Wooden Spoonists in the 2012 Varsity Cup, will play in the Varsity Shield, whilst 2011 Varsity Cup winners, FNB UCT, staved off relegation in 2013 by beating Varsity Shield runners-up, FNB CUT, in their promotion/relegation clash on the 2012 Finals Day.
The addition of Wits also adds another mouth-watering local derby to the Varsity Rugby calendar, with the all-Johannesburg battle between FNB Wits and FNB UJ taking place at the Wits Rugby Stadium in Round Four (Monday, February 25 – 4.45pm).
The match will be televised and will rival the all-Cape derby between the FNB Maties and FNB UCT (which takes place in Round Five – March 4) in terms of popularity and fervour.
2013 Varsity Cup fixtures (February 4 to April 8):
Monday, February 4:
FNB Maties v FNB UJ, Danie Craven Stadium – 4.45pm (TV)
FNB NWU-Pukke v FNB UP-Tuks, Fanie du Toit Sports Grounds – 7pm (TV)
FNB UCT v FNB NMMU, UCT Rugby Fields – 7pm
FNB Wits v FNB Shimlas, Wits Rugby Stadium – 7pm
Monday, February 11:
FNB UP-Tuks v FNB UCT, Tuks Rugby Stadium – 4.45pm (TV)
FNB NMMU v FNB Wits, NMMU Stadium – 7pm (TV)
FNB UJ v FNB NWU-Pukke, UJ Stadium – 7pm
FNB Shimlas v FNB Maties, Xerox Shimla Park – 7pm
Monday, February 18:
FNB Shimlas v FNB UP-Tuks, Xerox Shimla Park – 4.45pm (TV)
FNB Maties v FNB NMMU, Danie Craven Stadium – 7pm (TV)
FNB Wits v FNB NWU-Pukke, Wits Rugby Stadium – 7pm
FNB UCT v FNB UJ, UCT Rugby Fields – 7pm
Monday, February 25:
FNB Wits v FNB UJ, Wits Rugby Stadium – 4.45pm (TV)
FNB UP-Tuks v FNB Maties, Tuks Rugby Stadium – 7pm (TV)
FNB NWU-Pukke v FNB UCT, Fanie du Toit Sports Ground – 7pm
FNB NMMU v FNB Shimlas, NMMU Stadium – 7pm
Monday, March 4:
FNB UCT v FNB Maties, UCT Rugby Fields – 4.45pm (TV)
FNB Shimlas v FNB NWU-Pukke, Xerox Shimla Park – 7pm (TV)
FNB UP-Tuks v FNB Wits, Tuks Rugby Stadium – 7pm
FNB NMMU v FNB UJ, NMMU Stadium – 7pm
Monday, March 11:
FNB NWU-Pukke v FNB NMMU, Fanie du Toit Sports Ground – 4.45pm (TV)
FNB UJ v FNB UP-Tuks, UJ Stadium – 7pm (TV)
FNB Shimlas v FNB UCT, Xerox Shimla Park – 7pm
FNB Wits v FNB Maties, Wits Rugby Stadium – 7pm
Monday, March 18:
FNB UJ v FNB Shimlas, UJ Stadium – 4.45pm (TV)
FNB Maties v FNB NWU-Pukke, Danie Craven Stadium – 7pm (TV)
FNB NMMU v FNB UP-Tuks, NMMU Stadium – 7pm
FNB UCT v FNB Wits, UCT Rugby Fields – 7pm
Monday, March 25:
Semifinal One: Log position 1 v Log position 4 – 4.30pm (TV)
Semifinal Two: Log position 2 v Log position 3 – 7pm (TV)
Monday, April 8:
Final: Semifinal winner One v Semifinal winner Two – 7pm (TV)
