The men’s rugby team has qualified for the first time to be part of the Varsity Cup Rugby 7’s competition that will take place on 5 to 6 October this year in Johannesburg.
CPUT came sixth overall of the 24 universities which participated in the recent University Sports South Africa (USSA) competition, making the top 12 teams that will play Varsity Sport 7s after winning five matches out of eight. Four of the victories came in quick succession as the team scored 26 points during each match.
While their biggest win was 26 – 0 to North West University Vaal in their fourth match their biggest defeat was 10 – 50 to the University of Johannesburg in the sixth match.
“It’s a great feeling to achieve our primary goal. We went to this tournament as underdogs, but we knew and always believed we had the players to do the job and that it was a matter of time before they gelled as a team,” says team manager Bongani Ntshobodwana.
“Having won the USSA 15 in July for the first time in the university’s history, our tails were high going into this [other] format of the game, where we have some of the most gifted players around.”
Bongani attributes the team’s success at the tournament to the support of staff members who travelled with the team to KZN Lungile Nsibande, team Physio Kamila Johnson, Siyabulela Mkwalo, Manager: Sport and Culture, and Student Development Officer Bulelani Mlakalaka.
“Credit must also go to the team as they put their bodies on the line, a couple of them had to play with injuries. This team’s blood runs blue.”
He thanked the coaches, I Solomons and M Davids, for their hard work and praised captain Lunathi Nxele for leading the team with distinction on and off the field.
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