Eagles continue their form in pursuit of the Varsity Cup
The FNB NWU Eagles rugby team, which has demonstrated exceptional form in this year’s Varsity Cup campaign, is tackling Ikeys at home tonight.
Sitting in fifth position at present, the team from the University of Cape Town is expected to fight to make its way into the top four teams.
Following the most recent fixtures the NWU Eagles team is already in the top four. It is in the second place with 23 points, behind the group of the University of Pretoria, which tops the table with 26 points.
Stellenbosch University’s FNB Maties and the University of Johannesburg (UJ) have 21 points each, positioning them as third and fourth respectively, but with the point difference indicator giving Maties the advantage.
Despite the Eagles’ recent loss to Maties, which enabled Tuks to move into the top spot, the NWU is still set to qualify for the final few matches in April.
The Eagles started their season strong by making an emphatic statement in the season’s first two matches. They defeated the Central University of Technology away with a scoreline of 59-42, which was then followed by a 63-15 win at home against Emeris University.
Despite losing to UJ in their third match, the Eagles’ momentum was only momentarily halted as the team followed that up with two consecutive victories, including a win over log leaders, Tuks.
Strong performances from the team have prompted a feeling that they are genuine title contenders. NWU students believe that the Eagles not only have a solid squad but one that can repeat the success of their predecessors, who won the cup in 2023.
After the Emeris match Rudrey Steenkamp said, “No university can compete with the NWU, this year we’re going to take it [the trophy] home.”
Leane Floch, a student who attended the match against Tuks, described it as a competitive clash that allowed the team to make a statement. “Tuks was on top of the leader board [at the time], so this was an important victory for us. I liked that we were in the lead the whole time, but the match was still suspenseful and very entertaining.”
Following the Eagles’ match against Tuks, Burger van der Westhuizen, the Eagles’ head coach, was upbeat about the performance. “I’m absolutely chuffed that we won the game. It’s important to win your home games but the way we played in the first half and the way we played in the second half does not correlate, so we will need to fix that. Although, don’t take anything away from the guys [Eagles] – they really played well. I’m very happy with them and I think they did extremely well to win the game tonight.”