“We would have loved to field our strongest side, but the fact that all three tournaments take place during UP’s end of the year examinations proved to be very problematic. In fact, we went through a logistical nightmare before we eventually managed to finalise our team, and that was only on Tuesday. The other big stumbling block in getting together our best team is that many of our first choice players were unavailable for selection due to their Varsity Cup pre-season commitments,” commented Blikkies Groenewald, the Tuks coach.

“But all this is now water under the bridge. Our team may well not be as well balanced as we would have preferred, but the 13 players representing Tuks at the three tournaments are all very proud and determined. We have set our sight on a triple 7’s crown.”

Tuks will start their campaign on Friday at 10:40 when they take on UJ, coached by Freddie Grobler, a former Tuks 1 Varsity Cup coach. Tuks’ second match, against TUT, will be live on SuperSport 7 at 15:40. The other two matches on day 1 are at 17:00 (v UCT) and 18:20 (UWC).

Tuks’ team is:

GD Kotzee, Dabeon Draghoender, Clayton Stewart, Wynand Pienaar, Daron Liebenberg, Clinton Swart, Tjippie Kruger, Christiaan Rust, Apie Breet, Siya Mlalandle, Jaendre Taljaard, Raymond van Niekerk, Theunis Jacobs.