The University of Johannesburg (UJ) rugby club is buzzing with excitement as five of its talented players and two coaches gear up to represent South Africa at the upcoming Aix-Marseille-Provence 2024 FISU World University Championship Rugby Sevens in France on 10 and 12 June 2024. This comes after the players made an impressive showing as they crisscrossed the country during the 2024 FNB Varsity Cup tournament with the UJ men’s and women’s senior teams.
The five youngsters will be accompanied by UJ rugby coaches, Patrick Ross-Allen (men’s 7s and women’s 15s teams coach) and Bongiwe Nhleko (women’s 15s and 7s coach). They will be travelling as part of the University Sport South Africa (USSA) team, going into camp on Monday, 3 June.
Three senior male players, Sfiso Dlamini, Meyer Kriel and Rowen Malgas have impressed in the 2023 FNB Varsity Cup tournament with Malgas scoring a number of crucial tries for the Orange Army. He scored nine tries, five conversions and two penalties as well as winning the Player That Rocks in the last match against the University of the Western Cape.
The UJ women’s senior team captain, Fatouma Yalcoue together with Ntsako Mbombi, have also made represented UJ well in this year’s women’s FNB Varsity Cup tournament. The two ladies are currently playing for Golden Lions’ Women’s Team.
“We’re extremely proud of these five players and the two coaches from our University to be selected as part of the USSA 7s team going to France. This shows that we can develop players of good character from our rugby programme, though our teams have taken a dip in the past few years. The selection of our players and coaches gives our club encouragement going forward to continue working hard and professionally to groom players who are in good standing for national teams. We wish the team and the players the very best in the FISU 7s championship,” says Bongani Mashiya, Manager: UJ Rugby Club.
The UJ men’s team finished in 6th position in the 2024 FNB Varsity Cup tournament after 7 matches played while the ladies lost all their matches in the women’s edition.
Follow UJ Sport on Facebook, X and Instagram for daily updates.
