Varsity Cup-out...


I am not here right now throwing finger jabs at the keyboard to gloat about how UCT RFC handed Tukkies their ass back to them on Monday night when the two sides met on UCT's Green Mile. Nope, gloating would be unsporting-like and wouldn't become the ethos of the UCT RFC.


However, after contemplating this idea it has dawned on me, that I am in no way associated with the 1st XV, bar of course my loyal support for it, so driving the point home that UCT scored 8 tries in their 55-24 thupping makes no reflection on the team itself.



55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 - 24...

JJ looking for Herbie's chicken! Tighthead hoping to steal it.

Admittedly, Tukkies are also only considered a second tier team in this Varsity Cup competition of 8 teams, but they did draw with Maties 31-31 the week before in Stellenbosch. 55 55 55 55 55 55 55...


If you want a match analysis wait for the Varsity Paper in about 3 Tuesdays from now. They will also probably tell you the competition is based on "Monday Night Lights" College Football. Which it is not? What kind of idiot makes statements like that without checking that shit out?


The NFL has one game on a Monday Night, hence Monday Night Football.
High School Football is played on Friday Nights, hence the Friday Night Lights moniker and it's movie and drama series fame.
College Ball is played on Saturdays.
How you manage to muddle the 3 together and say Varsity Cup is based on Monday Night Lights College Football? I am not quite sure.

Sorry that tangent was aimed to psyche me up for the real pith of this post: What Varsity Cup really is based on?

The loose forwards and halfback pairing!

Very succinctly the big powers that be in SA Rugby realised they had access to enough money to fund a national club based tournament that hopefully would extend talent pools, appease their purist intentions and replace emphasis on rugby at club level, give back to the Universities they once played for and hopefully usurp the media and financial backing from the Vodacom Cup.


Who are these powers? If you think rugby in SA isn't run by - I can't avoid doing this stereotypically - a strong group of Afrikaans purist you are mistaken. Funded by Steinhof these mean have created a very interesting platform to showcase SA's rugby talent at the level between school and Super 14. Lovely.



However this is where it sours. Steinhof form what I gather is a large holding company with loads of subsidiaries below it that sell anything from tractor oil to Bull Brand Beef to any farming implement you can image. Picking up a theme here? They are basically the Costra Nostra of farming co-ops in SA.

UCT doesn't really fall into this pile anywhere. Pukke, Tukkies, TUT, Shimlas, UJ and Maties however are the backbone of the sporting pride to these people. I am not really sure where Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University NMMU falls into the picture? Although I have never hit on a girl from PE that didn't talk with an Afrikaans accent so I guess they fall on the Afrikaans side of the language fence. 7 v 1. UCT is the 1.

You think I am making this up? Try this for size.

On the Friday before UCT's first game against Pukke on the 18th of February, UCT was informed that flanker Jody Birch was too old to play. Competition rules only allowed players that are under 26 to play, that means born after 1983 onward so turning 25 this year, to play. Fair enough Birch was born in 1981 so didn't play.




That same Monday out in Stellenbosch, 8th Man Bennie Booysen started for Maties in their draw against Tukkies. (55 55 55 55 55) Bennie Booysen was born 6 Jan 1982. He is 26. Don't believe me? Check out the Maties website. http://student.sun.ac.za/rugby/players/PlayerInfo.asp?PlayerID=179.

Booysen is a fantastic player and great to watch. He played against Tukkies on the 18th and again in the second round of the competition this last weekend.

Dodgy? You bet your fuckin' life it is...