The 2016 Varsity Hockey men’s tournament should provide typically festive students hockey, but for the hosts, the University of Johannesburg, there is the serious business of defending the title they won in the 2014 edition of the biennial event.
And with eight players from their squad fresh from the high-pressure environment of playing in the final of the men’s Senior Interprovincial Nationals, the other seven teams competing this weekend at UJ will have their work cut out for them.
The Johannesburg leg of the tournament runs from Friday to Monday, before the eight teams resume battle at the University of Stellenbosch the following weekend, with the final on May 23 at the venue of the team that finishes top of the log.
UJ open their defence against Maties at 6.45pm on Friday night in a repeat of the thrilling 2014 final. Varsity Hockey rotates between men’s and women’s tournaments each year.
Taylor Dart, Gareth Heyns and Brynn Cleak were all key members of the Southern Gauteng team that won the senior IPT in convincing fashion, while Tyson Dlungwana, Kyle Lion-Cachet, Courtney Halle, Amkelwa Letuka and Ryan Crowe were in the vanquished SA U21 team and are amongst the brightest young talents in the country.
Additionally, goalkeeper Matthew Martins, Gerald Mpopo, Rayner York and Leneal Jackson were in the Witwatersrand (Southern Gauteng B) team that also performed with credit in the A Section at IPT, losing out to the SA U21s in a shootout for a semifinal place.
Maties have several reasons of their own to believe they can go one better this year, with the highly impressive Dylan Swanepoel, named player of the tournament in 2014, joined by Western Province senior captain Daniel Bell and his IPT team-mate Keanan Horne, while Maties have SA U21 stars of their own in Charlie Bowren, Matt de Sousa, Alex Stewart and goalkeeper Rob McKinley.
The University of Pretoria Tuks nearly made the final last time out, finishing on the same number of log points as UJ, but then being beaten by Maties in the 2nd v 3rd semifinal.
Tuks have a few dangerous players, especially former international Grant Glutz and rising star Tevin Kok.
The University of the Free State, with dangerous youngsters like Darren Kamfer, Winray Christoffels and goalkeeper Lou-Frans Esterhuizen, are outside bets, while the other teams competing in a tournament that should boldly depict how much hockey talent there is in our universities are NMMU, UCT, Wits and Pukke.
