It is the third consecutive year that the two-day tournament takes place at the university’s campus at Saasveld, featuring some the best student rugby sevens players in the country.
The tournament’s pool phase commences on Monday, 26 November with the knockout phase, followed by the all-important finals on Tuesday, 27 November.
With only four years to go before the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro, where rugby sevens will make its debut, this sport is enjoying a worldwide boom!
When the intervarsity rugby sevens tournament was first announced, Paul Treu, coach of the Springbok rugby sevens team, paid tribute to the USSA Board, stating that a student rugby sevens tournament is a step in the right direction to ultimately create a culture of sevens rugby in South Africa.
All of last year’s trophy winners, bar one, will be back to defend their titles. This includes last year’s Cup winners – University of Stellenbosch (Maties); last year’s winners of the Bowl competition – the local side, NMMU George; – and last year’s winners of the Shield competition – Tshwane University of Technology. The side not here to defend their title is Polytechnic of Namibia, last year’s winners of the Plate competition.
Supporters can look forward to exciting sevens rugby with some of the biggest draw cards who already confirmed their participation being two-times defending champions, Maties; this year’s Varsity Cup champions, University of Pretoria (Tukkies); last year’s Varsity Cup champions, University of Cape Town (Ikeys); University of the Free State (Shimlas); North West University Potchefstroom (Pukke); University of Johannesburg (UJ), former Plate competition winners, University of the Western Cape and of course the local side, NMMU George.
NMMU George is expected to take full advantage of the fact that they are playing on their home field again and hope to build on last year’s fine performance.
The 21 teams in alphabetical order are:
Cape Peninsula University of Technology
Mangosuthu University of Technology
Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (George)
Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (Port Elizabeth)
North West University (Mafikeng)
North West University (Pukke)
North West University (Vaal)
Tshwane University of Technology A
Tshwane University of Technology B
University of Cape Town
University of Johannesburg
University of Limpopo (Medunsa)
University of Limpopo (Turfloop)
University of Pretoria
University of Stellenbosch
University of the Free State
University of the Western Cape
Vaal University of Technology
Walter Sisulu University (East London)
Walter Sisulu University (Ibika)
Walter Sisulu University (Mthatha)
All matches will be played at NMMU’s George Campus at Saasveld and are open to the public.
NMMU George rugby sevens captain, Francois Kemp, receiving the Bowl trophy from USSA Rugby chairman, Mervyn Taylor, after their 17-12 win over North West University’s Vaal Campus in the 2011 Bowl final. (Photograph by Kelvin Saunders)