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Blood, sweat, and cheers: a Shimla triumph

24 April 2024 | Story Anthony Mthembu | Photo Francois van Vuuren

Varsity Cup 2024 — The FNB UFS Shimlas are the winners of the 2024 FNB Varsity Cup.

The FNB UFS Shimlas are the winners of the 2024 FNB Varsity Cup. This comes after a 45-42 victory over the FNB UCT Ikeys in the final, which took place on 21 April 2024 at Shimla Park. “It was one of the best matches I have been involved in as a coach; both teams played unbelievable rugby and we are just so pleased to get this great result,” said Andre Tredoux, Head Coach of the FNB UFS Shimlas.

The last time the Shimlas won the title was in 2015. As such, Tredoux indicates that the team is thankful to bring the trophy home. Prof Francis Petersen – Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of the Free State (UFS) – was also in attendance at the final. In his congratulatory message, Prof Petersen described the match as a fantastic scene. “The team represented the University of the Free State; they represented one of our key values, which is excellence, but they also showed that sport – in this case rugby – has a social cohesion value,” he said.

The battle for the championship

Tredoux indicates that the match was a tough one, especially when the score stood at 14-0 and 31-19 against the Shimlas. He says the team had to dig deep to find its footing in the game again, considering that they were behind so early in the game. As such, he highlights, “It was a huge effort to get back into the game and keep playing as a team. We really focused on staying in the fight and being connected, as we knew Ikeys would tire in the later stage of the game.”

Subsequent to this monumental victory, he describes the team as having the ‘hearts of champions’ and credits their love and enthusiasm for the game as part of the reason for their success. In fact, one person who exemplifies this is the Shimla scrumhalf Jandre Nel, who was named the FNB Player that Rocks.

Furthermore, Tredoux thanks the UFS community for showing up in their numbers at the game. He also commends his team for working towards this victory, including “Inus Keyser, Mark Nichols, and Edith Maritz – our physiotherapist – for keeping the team healthy, as well as assistant coaches Melusi Mthethwa and Tiaan Liebenberg, and Jerry Laka, Director of Kovsie Sport at the UFS”.

Watch the highlights below:

News Archive

KovsieTennis wins gold at USSA – again

2014-12-10

The annual University Sport South Africa (USSA) tournament was hosted by the KovsieTennis Club from 1 – 5 December 2014 in Bloemfontein.

This year was the first time that KovsieTennis entered two teams in the tournament. Our first team played in section A, while our second team competed in section B. Both sections were divided into two pools with round robin matches during the first three days. Thursday presented the cross-over with the finals taking place on that Friday.

During the round robin phase, our first team beat Rhodes University, University of Witwatersrand and University of Pretoria. On the Thursday, they met North West University (Pukke) in the semi-final and beat them 8-5 in matches. The last match was not played, since Kovsies already won the semi-final. For the third year in a row, Kovsies faced Stellenbosch University (Maties) in the final. After some brilliant tennis in sweltering heat, Kovsies found themselves 7-5 down in matches with the last two mixed doubles still to be played.

Janine Erasmus and Duke Munro, as number one couple, and Arne Nel and Heidi Murray, as number two couple, played outstanding mix doubles to win both matches, tying the score on 7-7. Due to the fact that Kovsies lost three of their matches in three sets they were crowned champions, winning with 17-14 on sets.

It is the eighth year in a row that the Kovsie club managed to win gold during USSA. We are also the only team that has won the tournament since the format changed to combined teams from 2010.

After the tournament Arne Nel, Duke Munro and Christi Potgieter were included in the squad from which a team will be selected, should tennis feature at the World Student Games in Korea during July 2015. Janine de Kock , KovsieTennis manager, was also appointed as manager of the SA Student team and Marnus Kleinhans from Kovsies will be their coach.

The second team beat Tshwane University of Technology, University of Kwa-Zulu- Natal and University of Cape Town during the round robin and in the semi-finals they won against University of Pretoria. Unfortunately they lost in the final against the North West University, but the club is extremely proud of the players since it was the first time all of them played in a USSA tournament. They gained a lot of experience that will greatly contribute to the value they will add to the team next year.

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