Tuks relegated in Varsity Cup after six consecutive defeats
Traditional enemies of Tuks' rugby team (and even haters of the Blue Bulls) enjoy the situation and make fun of it, while supporters are furious and looking for answers after the team’s humiliation of regulation to the Varsity Shield tournament – but the core of the rugby problems at the University of Pretoria may not be rooted in the team or the coaches.
“How on earth could this happen?” and “no one saw this coming…”
These are just two of the most common comments that have been made on social media since Monday evening, after the rugby team of the University of Pretoria (Tuks) suffered their sixth consecutive defeat in this year’s Varsity Cup tournament.
With that, their fate is also sealed – Tuks will be relegated to the Varsity Shield division and for the first time since the tournament’s inception in 2008, this five-time champion will not be part of the Varsity Cup series in 2024.
Tuks lost 21-33 against the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg on Monday evening. At the same time, the University of Johannesburg (UJ), which lies second last on the log, beat the Maties 47-38.
This UJ-victory increased the gap on the log between them and Tuks to 8 points. With only one league fixture left for all the teams, this means that Tuks can no longer do anything about their own fate – they will finish last on the log and be relegated.
The very first comment that anyone who closely follows club rugby in Pretoria would like to make to the statement that no one saw this disaster coming is: “Says who?”
The writing was already on the wall last year when Tuks’ house of cards began to collapse shortly after their Varsity Cup triumph, during which they won their fifth title in the tournament. However, at the end of the season last year, for the first time in more than two decades, Tuks could not reach the top four (semi-final round) of the Carlton Cup tournament.
While, until 2019 and before the arrival of the Covid crisis Tuks never lost more than two games in a season and managed to finish comfortably at the top of the Carlton Cup log every year, the 2021 and 2022 seasons were suddenly another story.
Last year the students lost six of their 14 league engagements in the Carlton Cup tournament and were beaten at least once by each of the top four teams – Naka Bulls, Centurion, Harlequins and Northam Rhinos. Then it already became clear that all is not well at the Tuks Rugby Club and that the club’s legendary depth suddenly no longer existed.
Various reasons have been given for this situation. Some have claimed that the university’s once glorious and very strong dormitory league is crumbling. Other observers claim the problems start at the management of the club, which is no longer of the quality it used to be. Others have looked for the fault at the university’s sports department, TuksSport, and it is said that sport as a whole is collapsing at this once proud university. And still others have looked for the fault with the management of the university itself and claim that the decay of the sports department is just a symptom of the overall decay at the university.
2021 – @varsitycup champions 🏆
2022 – @varsitycup champions 🏆
2023 – relegated to the @varsityshield ❌— SA Rugby magazine (@SARugbymag) March 27, 2023
Be that as it may, the tragic demise of Tuks’ rugby club is a crime against rugby in general, because it is no secret that over the years this club has been one of the foundations of the Blue Bulls and even Springbok rugby.
Parallels are already being drawn between the decline of sport at Tuks and the decline of sports activities at Pretoria’s other university, the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT). Rugby has also been destroyed at this university to such an extent that TUT, a former powerhouse and multiple champion in the Carlton league, is largely only a participant and has long ceased to be a factor in the Varsity Shield league, while their rugby team can no longer manage to qualify for the Carlton league either.
There are of course those who take this parallel further. It is no secret that the decline of rugby and other sports at TUT indeed has a purely political cause – the same political agenda that ruined the reputation of the institution as a whole. Some observers now reckon that Tuks’ problems indeed have the same cause.
Do you have more information about the story?
Please send us an email to editorial@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.
For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites: Rekord East
For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram
