The 2015 University Sport South Africa (USSA) Week begins Monday 29 June and the 9 sporting codes representing TuksSport are; Badminton, Cycling, Golf, Gymnastics, Hockey, Netball, Rugby, Squash and Volleyball. The Tuks teams will do battle in their respective tournaments at various institutions across South Africa.

TuksSport will be the team to beat this year. From the 9 sporting codes participating; Golf, Netball and Rugby ranked first place, Badminton, Cycling and Gymnastics ranked second and Volleyball ranked third in the 2014 competitions. 

Badminton will take place on home ground in the Rembrandt Hall, Sports Centre, UP Sports Campus. Head Coach Billy Kuyper had this to say, “Even though we do not have high profile players at TuksBadminton, our teams are evenly strengthened. This is in our advantage as we do not have any weak points. I’m expecting tough matches, but we are looking to upset the stronger Universities who rely on individual National players.”A quote from one of the athletes: Anna-Mart Liebenberg: “USSA is going to be tough because there are National players in the other teams. However, our team’s strength is that we are all motivated and play for each other. I believe that we can win more games than expected.”

Cycling is taking place in Stellenbosch, and the competition covers both on-road and off-road categories.

The Golf tournament is taking place at the Port SHepstone Country Club on the South Coast. "We have a very experienced team this year. I feel that the players have been in good form and I expect them to be right in the mix for the title which they won last year at Koro Creek," said Emile Steinmann, Tuks 1 team manager. Marco Loubser team captain for Tuks 1 team says that "since we won the Match Play title last year it is up to this year’s team to not only defend it but hopefully add the Stroke Play title to our collection"

The TuksGymnastics team will be competing at NWU.

Hockey will take place in Pietermaritzburg at the AB Jackson and the UKZN astro.

Netball will be hosted by UJ at the Auckland Campus. Coach Jenny van Dyk had this to say ahead of the tournament, "USSA is definitely one of our annual highlights, we are well prepared and ready to play our hearts out. The team has been finalized and all the different combinations are starting to settle well. As defending champions the expectation is that the team will improve on their previous performance and up their standard even more. There is a higher standard that needs to be reached. Like always there will not be any easy games, but this is a talented squad with a lot of experience, energy and guts." 

Rugby will also take place close to home, at UJ. Pote Human, Head Coach of the TuksRugby USSA team, says though they have never successfully defended the USSA title, the 2015 squad, an even stronger outfit than last year seems have mastered how to get the most out of their match day squad and will put up a tough challenge. "We have never won the USSA title back to back. After beating UJ in the final in Grahamstown last year, we have set our target on defending our championship title successfully. We have a great team with exciting players. They know it will not be easy as we are the defending champions and people expect us to do well. We will be under pressure from the very first minute, but only need to play the structured rugby that became our trade mark in the 2015 Carlton League. A composed and disciplined team is hard to beat. Of note is that, for the first time in TuksRugby's history, we will be fielding a team of truly gifted students one player busy is busy with a Master’s degree in Zoology, four with Honours degrees, whilst seven others will finish their undergraduate studies at the end of 2015. Also for the first time ever we have siblings in our team: Theuns and Abri Reynolds."

Squash this year will be hosted at WITS. Leading up to USSA 2015, Coach Alan Colburn said "we have been training and focusing on racquet skills specifically, as well as gaining valuable match experience in the local leagues, tournaments and the Northerns Open". He added that the team is well prepared and he expects that the team will be extremely competitive.

Volleyball will take place at NMMU in Port Elizabeth.

We wish all of our teams the very best. We know that athletes and coaches have prepared well and are ready to #EarnTheirStripe.