By ROSS ROCHE
The B division of this year’s University Sport South Africa (Ussa) rugby week should be an exciting one as the Border region’s top university side, the University of Fort Hare (UFH), battles for glory.
Although not hosting this year’s rugby week the team will be feeling at home as they play at various venues across East London where they play on a regular basis.
“We are excited to be playing in this competition here,” said Fort Hare coach Ziniko Dumathi.
“It is basically like a home tournament for us and we are looking forward to having quite a few of our fans here cheering us on during the week.”
With a strong field in the B section featuring 2016 Varsity Shield winners Wits, runners-up University of the Western Cape (UWC) and other Varsity Shield sides, the University of Kwa Zulu-Natal (UKZN) and Tshwane University of Technology, UFH have a tough division.
The other teams to make up the section are Varsity College, North West University Vaal and the Walter Sisulu University B team, a late replacement after Namibia, who were expected to take part, missed the deadline.
“It is going to be a tough competition; we cannot take any of these teams for granted,” said Dumathi.
“We need to be at the top of our game.”
Having not done well in this year’s Varsity Shield competition, finishing at the bottom of the table, UFH will be looking to impress at this tournament.
The team will be blooding a number of youngsters as well and they will want them to have a successful as possible first foray into top-class university rugby.
“We would like to make the final and if we can make it there anything can happen,” admitted Dumathi.
“But we do not want to put too much pressure on the guys and just want them to go out there and enjoy the tournament and for the new guys coming in to have a good experience.”
UFH’s first match will be against UWC and it should be a cracking match between the two old rivals.
Both teams will be going all out to get a good start in the competition and build some momentum to take forward into the rest of the week.
“Whatever team we come up against I believe we can manage against them,” said Dumathi.
“Against UWC we are expecting some good running rugby from them and are looking forward to an open game and are ready for it.
“For us we are going to mix it up, depending on how the game is being played we will change our tactics to suit it,” Dumathi added.
The match between UFH and UWC kicks off at the Old Selbornians B field at 11.50am today.
Fort Hare team seeks glory in tough B Section
The B division of this year’s University Sport South Africa (Ussa) rugby week should be an exciting one as the Border region’s top university side, the University of Fort Hare (UFH), battles for glory.
Although not hosting this year’s rugby week the team will be feeling at home as they play at various venues across East London where they play on a regular basis.
“We are excited to be playing in this competition here,” said Fort Hare coach Ziniko Dumathi.
“It is basically like a home tournament for us and we are looking forward to having quite a few of our fans here cheering us on during the week.”
With a strong field in the B section featuring 2016 Varsity Shield winners Wits, runners-up University of the Western Cape (UWC) and other Varsity Shield sides, the University of Kwa Zulu-Natal (UKZN) and Tshwane University of Technology, UFH have a tough division.
The other teams to make up the section are Varsity College, North West University Vaal and the Walter Sisulu University B team, a late replacement after Namibia, who were expected to take part, missed the deadline.
“It is going to be a tough competition; we cannot take any of these teams for granted,” said Dumathi.
“We need to be at the top of our game.”
Having not done well in this year’s Varsity Shield competition, finishing at the bottom of the table, UFH will be looking to impress at this tournament.
The team will be blooding a number of youngsters as well and they will want them to have a successful as possible first foray into top-class university rugby.
“We would like to make the final and if we can make it there anything can happen,” admitted Dumathi.
“But we do not want to put too much pressure on the guys and just want them to go out there and enjoy the tournament and for the new guys coming in to have a good experience.”
UFH’s first match will be against UWC and it should be a cracking match between the two old rivals.
Both teams will be going all out to get a good start in the competition and build some momentum to take forward into the rest of the week.
“Whatever team we come up against I believe we can manage against them,” said Dumathi.
“Against UWC we are expecting some good running rugby from them and are looking forward to an open game and are ready for it.
“For us we are going to mix it up, depending on how the game is being played we will change our tactics to suit it,” Dumathi added.
The match between UFH and UWC kicks off at the Old Selbornians B field at 11.50am today.
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