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12 April 2019 | Story Ruan Bruwer | Photo Varsity Cup
Vishuis
Vishuis will be trying to win their overall seventh Varsity hostel title on Monday.
Managing his players is of the utmost importance if the University of the Free State’s (UFS) Abraham Fischer Residence (Vishuis) is to claim a fourth straight and seventh overall national hostel title, says Zane Botha, head coach of the hostel team at the UFS.

The Varsity Hostel competition, which will be taking place in Stellenbosch, has been drastically shortened to only three days of rugby because Steinhoff has withdrawn their sponsorship.

If Vishuis makes it to the final, they will play three matches in four days.
They will face the Kovacs of the University of the Western Cape (UWC) on Friday 12 March 2019, followed by the semi-final on Saturday and the final on Monday. The final will take place at 14:00 and will be broadcast live on SuperSport.

“This will be new territory for us. We will have to make good tactical decisions; it won’t be possible for a prop to play for 70 minutes in all three encounters,” said Botha, who is in his third year with the hostel.

The team played three warm-up matches, which they won convincingly. We still have the core of last year’s team, together with some exciting youngsters.
Botha explained that they kept to their strategy of working harder than anyone else on the practice field and during matches. In last year’s final, Vishuis defeated Patria of the North-West University by 55-29, which was the biggest winning margin in the 11 years of the competition. Vishuis walked away with the crown in 2010, 2012, 2013, 2016, 2017, and 2018.

News Archive

UFS Debate Society prepares for three major tournaments
2012-11-20

Preparing for the Berlin Championships are, from the left: Richard Chemaly, Zola Valashiya, Ros Limbo and Nkosi Mangali.
Photo: Linda Fekisi
20 November 2012

The UFS Debate Society will be taking on three major projects during the holidays. The month of December will be filled with activities for the team, with members taking trips to Grahamstown, Pretoria and Berlin, Germany to showcase their debating skills.

Their first project is a coaching session in collaboration with the Free State Schools Debating Board. The team will be coaching the provincial school teams and accompanying them to Grahamstown where they will compete in the National Schools Debating Championships in early December.

At around the same time, members will also attend the Pan African Universities Debating Championships that will be held in Pretoria. The PAN African Championship, which the team won in 2009, has expanded over the years and now also includes participants from Australia and the United States of America.
Towards the end of December, four members of the team will be heading to Berlin, Germany to compete in the World Universities Debating Championships. Ros Limbo, Nkosi Mangali, Richard Chemaly and Zola Valashiya will represent the university.

Zola, who is currently the chairperson of the debating society, has been part of the team since 2008. He describes being part of the teams as, “a growing experience. I have learnt a lot, especially how to be a critical thinker”. He was ranked among the top ten speakers in the English First Language division during the Kgorong 2012 National Universities Debating Championships earlier this year. Zola says the team’s goal is to gain as much experience as possible in order to offer training. They are looking at forming strong relations with various other debate societies across the country.
 

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