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The men’s rugby team of the Central University of Technology (CUT), Free State, the Ixias, is compelled to pull out all the stops to retain its Varsity Cup status in a relegation or promotion tie against their old foes, the Nelson Mandela University’s (NMU) Madibaz.
The match is crucial to both sides in regards to their aspirations to achieve top-rank status.
The date and venue of this fixture are yet to be decided.
The outing is a replica of last year’s, in which Ixias emerged victorious with a 91 – 10 score against their Eastern Cape opponents.
For the Madibaz, this presents an opportunity for revenge. The Eastern Cape warriors are fighting to gain promotion from the Varsity Shield, the lower rank of the South African university rugby competition.
The Madibaz again finished in second position, on 28 points, in this tournament – with the winner thereof, the University of Pretoria’s (UP) Tuks, promoted to the senior rank of the universities men’s rugby competition, which also features eight teams.
The Ixias players find themselves again in the predicament of fighting to secure elite status, competing for either relegation or promotion following their failure to finish in the top-six bracket in the Varsity Cup.
They were bound to win one or two of the last matches played in order to avoid engaging in these play-offs.
These matches were against the reigning champions, the North-West University’s (NWU) Eagles, on 25 March, and the Stellenbosch University’s (SU) Maties on 8 April. However, the local lads suffered losses of 46 – 53 and 20 – 26, respectively.
The unfavourable results saw the Ixias boys finish in position seven on the table, with 13 points, in contrast to the previous term of 2023 when they ended on 18 points.
Despite starting positively, they have found the competition tougher, managing to record two wins, with five bonus points in seven matches played.
Throughout the tournament, the Ixias remained in position six, but fell short at the tail end of the tournamen.
The University of Johannesburg (UJ), secured position six with 13 points, too, but had a better point difference.
They had managed to win their match against the University of the Western Cape (UWC) 59 – 8.
