Maties seeded fifth for Club Champs
The Maties have been seeded fifth for the 2010 National Club Championships, which takes place next month.
This year’s Club Champs – which takes place at the University of Stellenbosch from Saturday, September 18-24 – will feature the country’s 14 provincial champions in a 16-team first-round draw.
FNB Maties, who have ruled the roost in the Varsity Cup since 2008, have also won many National Club Championship titles – but they did not qualify for last year’s tournament after giving up their WP Super League title to Hamilton’s.
Hammies’ heroics in the 2009 final, when they beat Varsity Cup side, Pukke, 36-34 at Loftus Versfeld, sees them seeded first after SARU’s competitions committee decided for the first this year to automatically invite the defending champions – even if they had not won their respective provincial title.
The Maties, of course, qualified as WP’s top team this year after finishing first at the halfway point of the Western Province Super League a few months ago.
FNB Pukke, as perennial Leopards champions, are seeded second, with last year’s losing semifinalist provinces KZN and Valke once again represented by College Rovers (for a fifth consecutive year) and Springs, who are ranked third and fourth respectively.
Maties and Pukke will be joined by fellow Varsity Cup sides, Shimlas, UJ and Tuks, at the Club Championships.
The full draw for the first round, with provincial seedings in brackets, is:
Hamilton’s (1) v Limpopo (16)
Leopards (2) v Mpumalanga (15)
KZN (3) v Griffons (14)
Valke (4) v SWD (13)
Western Province (5) v Griqualand West (12)
Golden Lions (6) v Blue Bulls (11)
Boland (7) v Free Sate (10)
Border (8) v Eastern Province (9)
The eight first-round winners will qualify for the Premier quarterfinals on Monday, September 20.
The eight losers will then battle it out for the Plate, with semifinals in both divisions taking place on Wednesday, September 22. The Premier and Plate finals will take place at the Danie Craven Stadium on the Heritage Day public holiday, with kick-off times to be confirmed.
With the Club Champs kick-off just over three weeks away, there are only a handful of provinces who have yet to confirm their champions.
The 13 teams confirmed so far are (VC teams in bold): Kimberley Police (Griqualand West), Springs (Valke), Noordelike (Limpopo), Bethlehem Oud Skoliere (Griffons), Hamilton’s (WP), University of Johannesburg (Golden Lions), Tuks (Blue Bulls), Mossel Bay Barbarians (SWD), College Rovers (KZN), Middelburg (Mpumalanga), Maties (WP), Shimlas (Free State) and Pukke (Leopards).
