Wrap of Round 1: Week 1

Morning sports fans! I can admit without fear of contradiction that I am pretty sure last nights opening round of the 2007 UCT RFC Internal League can be accountable for many a sore head wandering around campus this fine morning..!

Amongst the copious amount of alcoholic concussions frequenting the plaza is the odd bruised, battered and stiff feeling that every rugby player sports after the seasons first real contact session. Never fear ailing men, you did yourselves proud last night and girls love scars… Okay maybe a sub muscular soft tissue injury doesn’t get a girl flowing but the odd wince of pain never hurt.

For anyone who managed to make their way up to the Green Mile last night they got ring side seats to vintage Internal League rugby. The blustery south east confirmed its omnipresence and it felt like the Korean indoor track team was training around the park the chill was so nippy.

But neither the cold nor the breeze could dissuade some hard running rugby and abundant warmly clad first year girls coming to expect the new crop of rugby talent.

All the sides from Pools W, X and Y had a go last night with only the exception of Pool Z sitting out, although they chose to sit it out on the sideline with cooler box and Weber at close at hand.

In Pool W the Nadoes fought off a stern challenge from the Spanners and then ran away with it scoring 5 tries to win convincingly 33-0. In the other game the Wildboys who are the incumbent B league trophy holders emphatically beat a flailing Marquard side 34-5. The real difference in that game boiled down to team work and cohesion with Marquard playing a lot of the rugby albeit as individuals compared to the unity of the Wildboys.

In Pool X the losing finalist of 2006, the Barbarians, recorded a comfy 28-0 victory over College House. Don’t let the score lie to make you think the game wasn’t hard or was one-sided. College pushed Barbarians right to the death and kept them honest for 60 minutes. The next game saw the rivalry between two B League superpowers continue with the Panthers edging out the Shebeen Boys 15-7, just denying them the valuable bonus point.


In Pool X the exciting Purple Cobras trounced newcomers “Ikhaya Shake and Bake” (yes, that’s their full name) 65-0 in a high energy match. Hats off must go to the ISB Boys who took their initiation into the League with their heads held high. The final game was a spectator thrill with Ubumbo beating a tough Turtles side 17-3. Ubumbo scored 3 cracking tries but still manage to blow hot and cold although that could be down to early season jitters. The pack for Ubumbo was devastating in the tight loose and very efficient in open play, an aspect of their game which could be menacing for their future opponents.

Last nights results vindicated the somewhat controversial decision to mix up the leagues this year and move away from the traditional A and B League structure. The Nadoes, a bench mark of excellence of Internal League rugby, only put 5 tries past the Spanners a perennial social side from the B league that has never played a semifinal before. The Wildboys, winners of the B in 2007 and runners up in 2006, put 5 tries on Marquard who placed 6th in the A league last year. The Barbarians, 2007 losing finalist, beat College house by only 4 tries (burglering the last one at the death) and up until last year College had never won a B league game since Cecil Rhodes captained the Nadoes.

The IRB is faced with the problem that come World Cup time they have 3 nations that can compete for the Webb Ellis and maybe another 4 or 5 that can ensure the spectators get their ticket price worth. Argentina is one of these fringe 5 and don’t be surprised if they upset Ireland in the Pool Stages. The only way talented sides that are bubbling under the pace of top nations are going to get competitive is through exposure and playing beyond your watershed.

When an underdog warms up in silence on the Green Mile and then takes it to pedestaled top sides do they learn to up their game and learn how to win at that level.

Game of the Week: The Panthers v Shebeen Boys tussle. Having cast aside last years childish off field niggle in favour of going out their with rugby alone at the fore the game was an intense affair and great to watch.
Team of the Week: It goes to Ubumbo for pure passion. The play with an energy that excites the ground into delirium and never ease off the gas.
Try of the Week: Warren Kelly’s 60m effort showing that class doesn’t diminish with age.
- Bubbling under: Little Goldberg’s 50m break from a scrum on the halfway and of course “two tries with my first two touches” Jordan “Impact” Biderman-Pam.
Comment of the Week: It came from a member of Ikhaya’s impressive bench: “ya…they called me bullet at school cause of…I passed so quickly..!” Not the most eloquent of first language English speakers I have heard but certainly entertaining to watch guys come out and relive the glory days…

See you next week for more impressive rugby…

Moments away...


With less than a week to go until Kick-off, sides, supporters, families, talent scouts, bartenders and the nurses at Claremont mediclinic casualty ward nervously await the first week of big matches.


Thanks must be given to the power suit, power tie wearing committees that pronounce and sign off on all things attached to UCT for the extremely long holiday we have in june-july. It gives students ample time off to spend at home or overseas doing sweet nothing but also screws up our internal league fixture picture. And unlike the pictures on the back of residence lavatory doors (with the exception of Smuts of course) ours is not a pretty one.

-----------------------------A pretty one!

Our 11 weeks of rugby is split into two Rounds of 4 pool games and then the remaining 3 are the play-offs. Round 1 (in blue below) is then weeks 1-4, with Round 2 (in green) being weeks 5-8. Over 8 weeks, each side will play 6 games and have 2 byes and then each side will play 3 play-0ff games.



The problem arises is that June and July are write off rugby months because of exams and holidays so we only really playing in May and August with spill overs into April and September. I wasn't joking when I said it was going to be a long season.

Here are the fixtures for Round 1: [ie: Weeks 1-4]

Please bear in mind that the dates are subject to cancellation due to factors such as torrential downpour and unforeseen stuff like bird flu or a College victory. After the results of Week 4 we will reset the Pools for further games in Round 2.

Now that the administration is aside, let's play some footie.

The Taste of 2007…

After an 8 week banishment from Super rugby to take part in reconditioning and skills programs certain All Blacks returned to the fray with a competitive fire burning inside their newly constructed cores. Ricky Macaw made his first turnover in 2min 37s and made 12 tackles in the first half alone. When you keep a man away from something he loves, he comes back firing…

Speculation abounds whether the same rigorous training schedules were adhered to by the men of the Internal League rugby fraternity and although they might not look as attractive in a tight fitting adidas driFit jersey, I think there is little doubt that when they run out next week they’ll will be firing on all cylinders!

The off-season for many is a time of introspection and down time punctuated by hard kilometres on the road and hard sessions in the gym. The other 99% spend it hovering around the bars of Tiger or pressing the up-down button of ski lifts in Aspen. Regardless of which group you fall into, your mental mouth salivates at the thought of hitting that first ruck, making that first in contact offload or singing that first down-down song. The 18th of April is around the corner, and it’s time to let the games begin…

No matter how things change down on the Green Mile, everything seems to stay the same. Tries happen and are forgotten, fines meetings are had and cleaned up, players make their mark and graduate (unless they’re a nadoe), teams come and go, first you girls come and come again…but at the end of it all it just a team of friends playing the game of gods against another team.

The format of this years competition has been reconstructed to hopefully allow a structure that is more conducive to ensure the longevity of the brand of rugby that is associated with varsity rugby. A free flowing spectacle of fast paced running rugby where sides take on each other with skill and finesse thrown in amongst the standard SA approach of maul and kick. If you aren’t familiar with the new format scroll down to the post below and educate yourself on it.

The next 8 rugby weeks are dedicated to two sessions of Pool Stages (Round 1 and Round 2) where sides will compete against the sides in their pool to establish the draw for the knock out stages.

The pools are:

There are a few knew names in there including the readmission of Clarendon from Carinus Village, a side from the new day res, Ikhaya and the much talked about Eastern Cape 2 Rios. Clarendon’s absence from 2006 was missed heavily although probably by virtue of their travelling supporters club of golf5 sporting blonde haired beauties and not their substantial contribution to the rugby. Ikaya are an unknown quantity although we are predicting a similar impact to the Western Force in their first year of Super rugby. As their sponsorship suggests the EC2R’s have off field targets that may eclipse their on field antics but having signed many of the out casts from the Eastern Cape Spears they should have an impressive go of it.

The regularity that Wednesday night rugby will have on our calendars is stemmed somewhat by varies factors such as lank long varsity holidays, Intervarsity and other UCT RFC home games but spectators can diarised 9 such Wednesday’s and hence cancel 9 Thursday morning first periods. Since you can’t catch it on ESPN or at Tiger with $1 draft and free buffalo wings you will have to come catch all the action live. And if only half of you respond we will still probably get more bums on seats than if you hosted the ICC in the Windies.

See you soon, on the Mile….