The new Varsity Cup rules are due out anytime now. It’s expected that for the 2014 season, in order to qualify, players will have to have at least one full completed year of study under the belt. For 2015 this will increase to 2 years of study. In other words they will have to be real students and not just posers.
The bottom line is that the Varsity Cup will achieve its intended goal which is to showcase the talents of students who can play rugby and not pro or semi-pro rugby players who are able to attend a lecture or two during the semester.
I guess the next question is what will be come of the University of Pretoria’s team that contained a number of Bulls contracted players and will Nollis Marais still want to coach a new team made of students?
“Tuks of Niks”
Coach Robert du Preez is heading back to his roots
In other Varsity Cup news, the former Springbok scrumhalf is best-known for his time at Northern Transvaal and Natal is actually heading back to the place it all began for him in the 1980’s. Before becoming a household name Robert du Preez was in fact a Western Transvaal player and studied at the University of Potch. He leaves the Community Cup champions College Rovers of Durban, to take up the head coaching position at Pukke (North-West University) for the 2014 season.
And who said the auntie at the switch board does not know everything. You read it first here.
Kimberley – The Griqualand West Rugby Union has on Tuesday confirmed the resignation of head coach Pote Human as well as assistant coach Abré Minnie.
The pair would leave Griquas at the end of the Currie Cup season.
Human would take up the position of coach at the University of Pretoria from 2014 which includes the role as head coach for the Varsity Cup side, as well as other competitions such as the Carlton Cup, USSA tournament and the Predator series.
He would replace Nollis Marais and Riaan Vorster as the Varsity Cup coach and the USSA coach, respectively.
In the Bulls U19 squad I know of about 3 or 4 who are still studying and passing.
And Tuks invited all players who qualify for trials in October for Varsity Cup. Will still have to wait to see the amount of Bulls players to attend. Times are changing.
@Ploegskaar: Mu coach. Nee wat Ploeg ek dink jy ken my beter. Maar die skakelbord tanne se vir my dat Victor en Fourie die pos gaan oorneem. Victor agter en Fourie voor.
@Djou: Do agree 100% but what was his record at the Bulls before he “left” previously. With the “salary” mentioned I am sure top emerging coaches in Pretoria will be willing to coach but we would rather lose these coaches to appoint Human? I do not agree at all. An excellent example is mr Bart Schoeman??????
@Ploegskaar: I can confirm your statement – I don’t want to belittle people, but you are spot on.
@Tjoppa: Bullshit baffles, and none better than your highly-overrated current coach. Rumour has it he didn’t know his arse from his face at the FS but talked a good game, on the back of others’ hard work and effort…..
@BoishaaiPa; @BuffelsCM: You make good points. However, why not just make it simple. You must be enrolled full time for a specific course and attend more than 80% of classes and write tests and exams – like in the old days. Otherwise you won’t qualify for selection.
But what about the students enrolled at Unisa? I guess if you want to play rugby you should not study at Unisa (which is much cheaper than other universities).
@Tjoppa: So does this mean book knowledge is more important than practical experience. A certain Roman passed all his exams and look what happened. Ditto a certain Steve Walsh. Ditto a certain Wayne Barnes, as well as mr McHugh and his colleague called Nigel Owens, not to speak of the Aussie who robbed the Sharks (and got suspended) and the much talked about Bryce. They all passed their exams, albeit as referees, but we (and some other countries) suffered the consequences nevertheless. Mr. Human did not do badly at all, given the talent he has at his disposal – compared to that of other unions. I say give him a chance notwithstanding him allegedly not having the qualification. He proved himself at Shimlas and Heyneke would not have drafted him into the Bulls setup had he not believed Pote had something to offer.
@Tjoppa: Pass their exams or pass a rugby ball ?
@BoishaaiPa: I think the rule at the moment is that a player can’t move to one university (and take part in the Varsity Cup) after having represented the previous one at a Varsity Cup. You might have pointed out a possible grey area though.
@Fair Play: In theory yes but I think that will be limited to players that have been out of school for more than a year. IMO it is simply a case of ensuring that only bona fide students take part in the Varsity Cup (which is the correct thing to do)
@Tjoppa: I mean really, their new coach struggled to pass his level 2 coaching exam while coaching the Bulls @ Currie Cup level. Can we establish if he passed, I know for a fact he did pitch for the exam, and did he attend the level 3 course? This should be interesting. The antie on the switchboard said he is going to earn 65K per month at Tuks. Then maybe comrade Malema’s income is up to par. He actually did pass woodwork.
@Woltrui: Yes insist that all concerned is students. That is so unfair. Where must TUKS get 25 rugby players that can actually pass?
In the 1980,s and 90’s Audi were dominating motorsport to such an extend that motorsport governing bodies implimented a rule that all Audi’s had do have a 200kg weight penalty to “level the playing field”. With Tuks of niks winning the rugby, athletics and for sure to win the Intervarsity soccer, methods must be find to level the playing field at Intervarsity level.
Nollis not available for Varsity Cup next year and Pote Human signed or on the verge of signing at Tuks for 2014. That is if the tannie at the switchboard is accepted as a trusted source.
So this could also mean that a first year student will not be able to play for his University even if he is good enough? Could be a wasted opportunity and he then only qualifies to play for the young guns?
I hope it is stipulated that said student must at least have completed a year of study at the varsity he is playing for!..Else you will have another version of semi-pro’s that did a year at Unisa now being drafted into teams! The ones that will try and bend the rules will always find a way! It must be clearcut that it must be bona-fide students that study fulltime courses at the University they play for.