Varsity Cup: Lie of the land

There have been six rounds of the FNB Varsity Cup action that has flown by and with Round Seven set to get underway on Monday, March 18, we take a look at how things have gone thus far for the nine participating teams.

Maties

The defending champions have once again asserted themselves as favourites to lift the trophy, as they remain the only unbeaten side in the competition – Wits (home), UCT (away), Tuks (away), CUT (away), Pukke (home) and UJ (home) being the victims thus far.

Tuks

The Pretoria-based side’s only defeat of the competition came at the hands of Maties in Pretoria in Round Three but have seen off CUT (home), UJ (away), Wits (home), UWC (away) and Shimlas (away) to find themselves just four points off the top of the log.

NWU-Pukke

Pukke has also suffered just one defeat – at the hands of Maties, however, they do have a game in hand over the teams above them. Their victories have been over UJ (away), UWC (home), Shimlas (away) and UCT (home).

Shimlas

The Free State-based team rounds off the top four, having claimed three victories in the five matches they have played. Defeats to Tuks (home) and Pukke (home) have been balanced by victories over UWC (away), Wits (away) and UCT (home)

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The #FNBVarsityCup log after all the round 6 action this evening. @maties_rugby still undefeated while @TuksSport secure that second place spot. Let the battle for that 3rd and 4th place begin!#RugbyThatRocks pic.twitter.com/lFo76nei3N

— Varsity Cup (@varsitycup) March 11, 2019

UCT-Ikeys

In their five matches, the two-time champions have managed just two victories – over UWC (home) and UJ (home). Their three defeats have come at the hands of Maties (home), Shimlas (away) and Pukke (away)

CUT

The Ixias have, in years gone by, been the whipping boys of the competition but that has changed this season after narrowly edging UJ (home) and defeating UWC (home). Defeats to Tuks (away), Wits (away) and Maties (home), sees them occupy sixth place on the log.

UJ

The losing semifinalists of 2018 has had a start to the competition that they would want to forget, having picked up a solitary victory over Wits (home) in Round Five. Defeats to Pukke (home), Tuks (home), CUT (away), UCT (away) and Maties (away) has seen the Johannesburg-based side claim just seven points thus far.

Wits

The ‘other’ Johannesburg-based team, has also managed just a solitary victory in their campaign, a home game against CUT. They came up short against Maties (away), Shimlas (home), Tuks (away) and UJ (away) to find themselves second last on the log.

UWC

The newcomers are the only side that are yet to claim a victory in the competition. All five of their matches have gone the way of their opponents. It’s been a baptism of fire for the third Cape-based team with defeats to UCT (away), Shimlas (home), Pukke (away), Tuks (home) and CUT (home).