It is said that sweat plus sacrifice equals success. When one looks at the scorecard of the past weekend, the rugby teams from the North-West University’s (NWU’s) campus in Vanderbijlpark seem to be in agreement.

The campus rewrote the history books when they beat arch rivals Brakpan 23-10 in the Valke’s Peregrine League. This was campus’s first win over their nemesis since 2012. To add insult to injury, the NWU Vanderbijlpark’s second team as well as the under 21 team also won their clashes against Brakpan by 27-14 and 43-5 respectively. All the matches were played in Vanderbijlpark.

According to Lukas van der Schyff, head coach of the NWU Vanderbijlpark’s first team, the students dominated the set pieces. “We did not capitalise on all the opportunities to add to the scoreboard, but I am happy with the team’s game play on the day, “said Lukas. He added that the team’s spirit is at an all-time high and predicts that very soon the team would playing at its full potential.

The respective Player of the Match awards went to Hardus Scott, JP Storm and AJ Pretorius.

NWU Vanderbijlpark’s Rico Klopper side-stepping Brakpan’s defenders. Photo: Ettienne van Rensburg.