The 2017 edition of the Varsity Cup gets underway on 30 January 2017 and this year the competition celebrates ten years of rocking rugby as 16 universities battle it out for top honours – nine in the Cup competition and seven the Shield competition respectively.

It therefore means the competition will be expanded this year to 16 universities. It started in 2008 with only eight participants.

In 2017 three new universities are welcomed to the Varsity Shield tournament. The addition of Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), Rhodes University (Rhodes), and Walter Sisulu University (WSU) sees Varsity Shield grow from five teams to seven, while 2016 Varsity Shield winners, Wits, re-join Varsity Cup after a few seasons of absence, growing Varsity Cup from eight to nine.

Varsity Cup has always been at the forefront of introducing and experimenting with new rules and this year updates to the rules include:

* Bonus Point Try: The bonus point try has been reviewed, and the nine-point try has been disregarded. This year only a seven-point try and a five-point try will apply. The seven-point try will be awarded to the team who scores a try originating from their own half, while the five-point try will be awarded if the try originates in the opposition’s s to half. Conversions will remain at two points. This applies to Varsity Cup competition only and not Varsity Shield, Koshuis Rugby and Young Guns.

* Red Card Rule: The red card rule is a new rule that will be implemented in the 2017 season. If a red card is given to a player, this player will leave the field immediately, and his team will play with 14-men for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes any other player in the final match day squad may return to the field, apart from the player who received the red card. This rule will only apply to Varsity Cup.

* Other rules exclusive to Varsity Cup include the white card rule, strategy breaks, free catch rule, 23-player match day squads, defending nine offside rule, mauling, and scrumming laws.

Except for the usual match day entertainment Varsity Cup is known for, like the antics of the official mascot, Prof, as well as the different university mascots, there will be other match day activations to look out for. This include the Steers Build-A-Wacky Wednesday in which fans could win Steers vouchers valid for one month; the Hertz Man Crush Monday campaign in which the Miss Varsity Cup contestants of each university will select a player from their university team’s match day 23 who will have the opportunity to flaunt it for a week behind the wheel of a Hertz vehicle; and the FNB and Steinhoff International Fans That Rock campaign in which fans must allow their creativity to take over by dressing up or creating banners to be eligible for the kicking competition at half time whereby the winner will receive R2 500, be interviewed on SuperSport and receive a Fans That Rock vest and a jumbo yellow ball.

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