The Varsity Cup Dream Team is a selection of players from all the South African universities who get the opportunity to play against the Junior Boks and two young stars are joining the squad!
The Varsity Cup of 2017 is over, the champions were TUKS, more commonly known as the University of Pretoria, who won on their home ground.
Now that the tournament is over the Dream Team vs. Junior Boks game can take place.
The Dream Team is made up of players from all the university teams. The team was selected but needed to be changed due to injury and other reasons. The team line up is as follows:
15 Craig Barry (Maties – captain), 14 Sibahle Maxwane (UP-Tuks), 13 Aphiwe Dyantyi (UJ), 12 Impi Visser (UP-Tuks), 11 Duncan Saal (Maties), 10 Tinus De Beer (UP-Tuks), 9 Andrew Warner (UP-Tuks), 8 Kevin Kaba (Madibaz), 7 Phumzile Maqondwana (Shimlas), 6 Daniël Maartens (Shimlas), 5 Loftus Morrison (NWU-Pukke), 4 Aston Fortuin (UP-Tuks), 3 Nico du Plessis (UJ), 2 Wilmar Arnoldi (NWU-Pukke), 1 Andrew Beerwinkel (UP-Tuks)
Substitutes: 16 Johannes Snyman (UJ), 17 Luvuyo Pupuma (Wits), 18 Dillon Bakos (UJ), 19 Johan Momsen (Maties), 20 Chris Massyn (UP-Tuks), 21 Herchele Jantjes (UWC), 22 Ernst Stapelberg (Maties), 23 Michal Hazner (Maties)
Two of the players, Aphiwe Dyantyi from UJ and Kevin Kaba from Madibaz have had one of their rugby dreams come true thanks to the selection.
Aphiwe Dyantyi had an amazing season with the University of Johannesburg all thanks to his transition from wing to inside centre. This is what lead him to be chosen for the Dream Team. He was signed with the Lions last year but was mostly inactive due to injury.
He decided to put all his focus into the Varsity Cup and it has paid off.
“For many, this change was a bit of a shock but I’d been in discussion with the coaches and we’d been preparing for the role,” he said.
“I was comfortable trying out for centre and it was a decision that has really yielded good results for everyone.”
“My motivation this Varsity Cup season was to play the best I could for UJ, but I also wanted to create other opportunities for myself outside of that.”
Ahead of the semifinals Dyantyi had beaten more defenders (26) than any other player during the season and also made the most off-loads (19), ball carries (74) and line breaks (10) in the competition.
“The tournament has been a perfect platform for me to show the coaches at the Lions what I’m capable of,”
Kevin Kaba is the captain of the NMMU Madibaz team. He is the only member from his team that was selected to join the Dream Team.
“It meant a lot to me that I was selected for the Dream Team because it was one of my goals when I went into the Varsity Cup tournament,”
Kaba is excited to be playing alongside Maties flank Kobus van Dyk and University of Johannesburg backline ace Aphiwe Dyantyi. Van Dyk played Super Rugby for the Stormers last year and Kaba said he was eager to learn from him.
“It will be really valuable to play alongside someone of that calibre and with that experience,”
“Dyantyi has also had a successful season so it will be nice to see what it’s like being on his side for a change.”
The game is set to be an exciting one because of the skill of the players on both teams is great!
“I feel our side have some really good players who could have been Junior Boks themselves, so I think we’re in for a real strength versus strength encounter.”
The Varsity Cup Dream Team take on the Junior Boks on the 25th of April at 19:00PM at the Danie Craven Stadium. The exhibition game will be aired on DSTV SuperSport 1, channel 201 from 18:45pm.