Defending champions Fort Hare Blues, as well as WSU All Blacks and Rhodes, say they are primed for a new dawn of the Varsity Shield rugby competition set to start on Thursday.
Last year’s champions, Fort Hare, will be looking for a trophy double to gain automatic promotion to the Varsity Cup.
The side was unbeaten in their eight matches last year. They beat CPUT 28-27 in the dying minutes of last year’s final at Davidson Stadium, where they were crowned champions for the first time in the competition’s history.
This year the varsity team will be coached by Lumumba Currie and will kick off their campaign against rivals WSU on Thursday in Dikeni.
“Our preparations have been OK with some challenges that we have encountered at the beginning of our camp, but we’re soldiering on,” Currie said.
“It’s going to be a tough season now that we are defending champs.
“Everyone is going to come hard at us, so the pressure is on, but we’ll stay in the fight.
“We have lost seven players from last season because of age, but they’ve graduated to professional rugby now and they continue to put the institution on the map.
“It is a very young squad that we have, but they are very competitive,” he said.
They will have the presence of victorious skipper Kamvelihle Fatyela, Ayabulela Xhosana, Walter Moyo, Lukhanyiso Ntosholwana, Ryan Maree, Merlin du Plessis and Apiwe Sidloyi into their weaponry.
Last year’s semi-finalists beaten by Fort Hare, the WSU All Blacks will be eager to return to the form that saw them being finalists in 2021 and 2019.
The side finished fourth in the log last season.
They will be marshalled by head coach Thembani Mkokeli in the new campaign, but will be without stalwart and flyhalf sensation Lwandile Maphuko.
“We have lost key players like Lwandile Maphuko and lock Asekho Marubelela, but retained some of the older players who have helped to introduce and maintain the WSU All Blacks’ running rugby culture,” Mkokeli said.
“With the Varsity Shield being a well-contested competition, a proper player recovery and squad rotation system will be vital as teams will be travelling extensively to play their matches.
“The ultimate goal is not only to win, but to qualify for the playoffs of the competition,” he said.
Rhodes will be coached by James Winstanley and captained by Simelela Mbanzi.
The Makhanda side end their campaign sixth in last year’s competition and avoided relegation by just a point.
Winstanley said they were hoping to change their fortunes in this year’s competition.
“I think we need to stop playing against the jersey and start playing against the people in the jersey.
“We should have won many more games last season if the players went into games with a competitive mindset,” he said.
Varsity Shield round one fixtures: UFH vs WSU (Davidson Stadium, Dikeni), NMU vs TUT (Madibaz Stadium), Rhodes vs UWC (Rhodes Great Field), CPUT vs UKZN (Cape Peninsula University of Technology grounds).
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