By ROSS ROCHE
Electricity university rugby action is heading to East London as the University Sports South Africa (Ussa) Rugby Week takes part in the city from Monday to Friday.
Universities from across the country will be taking part as 29 teams contest four divisions for various honours.
Four university sides will be competing on the Eastern Cape front at the week as Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan University (NMMU), Fort Hare University (UFH), Walter Sisulu University (WSU) and Rhodes University will all be in action.
NMMU will be battling it out for the Cup in the A division and with fellow Varsity Cup heavyweights, such as North West University Pukke, Stellenbosch Maties, University Pretoria Tuks, 2015 champs University Johannesburg and the University of Cape Town, in the mix it should be a very exciting division.
“The boys are looking forward to it and we really want to do well,” said NMMU coach David Maidza.
“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 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 be facing fellow Varsity Shield sides Wits, UKZN, TUT and UWC, 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,” said Fort Hare coach Ziniko Dumathi.
“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 be competing in the C division again after they triumphed in the same division last year.
With teams such as Rhodes and CPUT 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,” said WSU coach Sipho Metula.
“It is a great honour to host an event of this magnitude with teams coming from all over, so it is going to be a very good week of rugby.”
“The guys are hard at working getting ready for the week and we won’t have any excuses not to play well.”
There will also be a D section in the week and this will be for some of the smaller university teams and university second teams to also be involved.
In all a great week of rugby is on the cards and teams will be going all out for top honours.
Three days of rugby action – next week Monday, Wednesday and Friday – will be played across East London with main matches taking place at the Buffalo City Stadium.
Explosive varsity fest to fire up field battles
Electricity university rugby action is heading to East London as the University Sports South Africa (Ussa) Rugby Week takes part in the city from Monday to Friday.
Universities from across the country will be taking part as 29 teams contest four divisions for various honours.
Four university sides will be competing on the Eastern Cape front at the week as Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan University (NMMU), Fort Hare University (UFH), Walter Sisulu University (WSU) and Rhodes University will all be in action.
NMMU will be battling it out for the Cup in the A division and with fellow Varsity Cup heavyweights, such as North West University Pukke, Stellenbosch Maties, University Pretoria Tuks, 2015 champs University Johannesburg and the University of Cape Town, in the mix it should be a very exciting division.
“The boys are looking forward to it and we really want to do well,” said NMMU coach David Maidza.
“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 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 be facing fellow Varsity Shield sides Wits, UKZN, TUT and UWC, 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,” said Fort Hare coach Ziniko Dumathi.
“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 be competing in the C division again after they triumphed in the same division last year.
With teams such as Rhodes and CPUT 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,” said WSU coach Sipho Metula.
“It is a great honour to host an event of this magnitude with teams coming from all over, so it is going to be a very good week of rugby.”
“The guys are hard at working getting ready for the week and we won’t have any excuses not to play well.”
There will also be a D section in the week and this will be for some of the smaller university teams and university second teams to also be involved.
In all a great week of rugby is on the cards and teams will be going all out for top honours.
Three days of rugby action – next week Monday, Wednesday and Friday – will be played across East London with main matches taking place at the Buffalo City Stadium.
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