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31 January 2018 Photo UFS Archive
Young squad did it for Shimlas
The 11th season of this popular rugby competition started on Monday 29 January, with the scoreboard favouring Shimlas on 19 points versus the 17 points of Tuks.

The head coach of the Shimla rugby team is confident that the skills level of the players will stand them in good stead for the upcoming Varsity Cup.

The 11th season of this popular rugby competition started on Monday 29 January, with the scoreboard favouring Shimlas on 19 points versus the 17 points of Tuks. The Shimlas faced last year’s champions, Tuks, in Pretoria. 

The rest of the 2018 Varsity Cup season will have the Shimlas playing on 5 February against Maties (away); 12 February against Wits (home); 19 February against Ikeys (away); 26 February against UJ (home); 12 March against NWU (away); 19 March against Madibaz (home); and 26 March against CUT (home).

Head coach, Hendro Scholtz, believes his players have the ability to play at a high tempo for 80 minutes.

“We don’t have the biggest boys around, so we rely on our speed and ability to throw the ball around. You can focus on your defence as much as you like, but tries will be scored. You simply have to ensure that you outscore your opponents,” said Hendro.

With up to nine players from last year’s squad not available again in 2018, the Shimlas are entering the competition with a very young and inexperienced team. According to Hendro, the big dropout since last year is due to a number of reasons, such as students who finished their studies.

“We will have to battle this Varsity Cup with a very young team, of which 10 players were still U19 last year. We faced the University of Johannesburg in a warm-up match, and for many of them it was an eye-opener. The speed and intensity is at a higher level than they were used to at U19 level,” said Hendro, a former Shimla himself.

He will be assisted by Melusi Mthetwa and Jaco Swanepoel.

* The Shimla squad:
Backs: Sango Xamlashe, Carel-Jan Coetzee, Kurt Eybers, Dian Badenhorst, Frank van Heerden, Francois Agenbach, Arrie Pretorius, Rewan Kruger, Zinedine Booysen, Nakkie Naudé, Lubabalo Dobela, William Eybers, Francois Pretorius, Aya Oliphant, Charl Pretorius, Ruan Henning, Sechaba Matsoele, Athi Halom, Jarik van der Walt, Tiaan Schutte, Marnus Boshoff. Forwards: Johan Kotze (captain), Louis Cloete, Nardus Erasmus, JC Janse van Vuuren, Ruan Roelofse, Magau Mabokela, Jano Botha, Helgard Meyer, Wentzel Vorster, Hanno Snyman, Marco van der Merwe, Merwyn Roos, Raymond Woest, Sibabalo Qoma, Nathan Jordan, Benji Jan van Vuuren, Menzi Nhlabathi, Janco Cloete, Kobus Lombaard, Bertie de Bod, Rholane Ncubuka, Henk Pretorius.

News Archive

UFS Rector takes three months sabbatical leave
2008-05-05

The Rector of the University of the Free State (UFS), Prof. Frederick Fourie, has announced that he will be taking three months sabbatical leave as from Thursday, 8 May 2008.

Prof. Fourie recently made the request for sabbatical leave to the Chairperson of the UFS Council, Judge Faan Hancke. The request was approved given the fact that Prof. Fourie has occupied a number of demanding top-management posts for almost nine years, during which time he had to manage a number of major changes at the UFS.

According to Prof. Fourie, he originally wanted to go on sabbatical leave in the second half of 2007 before the start of his second term as rector, but it was not possible at that stage.

He was last on sabbatical in 1996 before he became Dean of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences in 1997 and Vice-Rector: Academic Operations in 1999.

He could not take his next five-yearly leave because in the post of vice-rector he was tasked with leading the financial-turnaround strategy for the UFS from the year 2000 and had to act as rector when the previous rector, Prof. Stef Coetzee, was on sick leave. Since being inaugurated as rector in 2003, there was also no opportunity to take leave as a result of the many key projects and urgent initiatives.

The Vice-Rector: Academic Operations and vice-chairperson of the Senate, Prof. Teuns Verschoor, will be the acting rector. Management processes and decision-making will continue as normal under the leadership of the acting rector together with the Executive Committee of the Executive Management (Exco) and the Executive Management. This applies to the decision about the future of the Reitz Residence as well as the continuing implementation of the policy on diversity in student residences.

According to Judge Hancke it was important that Prof. Fourie took sabbatical leave in the light of the long period he has been at the forefront of very demanding changes. There are many challenges that still lie ahead.

During his leave Prof. Fourie will be involved with the Higher Education South Africa (HESA) investigation into diversity and racism on campuses, with research and a national conference on institutional culture, as well as the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) benchmarking project and its conference in Australia at the end of August 2008.

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