One of the exciting announcements to emerge from the launch of the 2016 season of the Varsity Cup on Monday was that in 2017 3 universities will join the existing 13 universities currently taking part in Varsity Rugby.
“When Varsity Cup began in 2008, 8 universities were competing,” said Varsity Cup chairperson, Jurie Roux.
“Then in 2011 we added the Varsity Shield and it grew by 5. Next year there will be 16 universities taking part in Varsity Rugby. The competition is becoming more and more inclusive and to have increased the university participation by 100% in under 10 years is phenomenal.”
The Varsity Cup and Varsity Shield competitions are managed by a board of members who will hold a meeting in May 2016 to decide upon a qualification process, whereafter the three additional universities will be announced.
The 3 new teams will join the Varsity Shield, while 1 Varsity Shield team will be promoted to the Varsity Cup, joining the 8 existing teams.
“We are extremely excited about this next chapter of Varsity Rugby,” said Varsity Cup CEO Duitser Bosman.
“The inclusion of 9 teams in Varsity Cup will allow each team to play 4 home and 4 away matches. In addition to that, each team can look forward to 1 bye week in the competition – a luxury they weren’t afforded in the past.”
Previously the teams’ 7 matches were split between 4 home matches and 3 away, or 3 home matches and 4 away – alternating from season to season.
The inclusion of 7 Varsity Shield teams in 2017 will allow each team to play 6 matches.
Promotion and relegation matches will be played again in 2018 for the 2019 season.
The 2016 Varsity Rugby season kicks off on 1 February 2016 with the 1st Round of Varsity Shield matches taking place.
Sport24