Four former Varsity Cup stars will make their first appearance in a Springbok training squad next week after cracking the nod from coach Heyneke Meyer. Meyer named a wider training squad ahead of the June international window which will see the Boks take on a World XV, Wales and Scotland, and four of the eight new faces have Varsity Cup experience. Cheetahs flank Teboho Mohoje, Stormers utility back Damian de Allende, Bulls loose forward Jacques du Plessis and Cheetahs lock Lodewyk de Jager will all attend a national training camp in Durban from May 25 to 28 May. Mohoje is a former UFS-Shimlas captain and even played for them this year before breaking into the Cheetahs squad, De Allende played for UCT in 2012 whilst De Jager played for NWU-Pukke and Du Plessis represented UP-Tuks when they won their second title last year. All four players have made a big impression in Super Rugby this year for their respective franchises and join fello former Varsity Rugby stars Eben Etzebeth, Trevor Nyakane, JJ Engelbrecht and Juan de Jongh in the training squad. This continues the steady stream of players who have used the Varsity Cup as a launching pad before going on to earn national colours. Springbok training squad: Tendai Mtawarira, Trevor Nyakane, Marcel van der Merwe, Jannie du Plessis, Frans Malherbe, Coenie Oosthuizen, Bismarck du Plessis, Adriaan Strauss, Eben Etzebeth, Lodewyk de Jager, Victor Matfield, Flip van der Merwe, Heinrich Brüssow, Marcell Coetzee, Siya Kolisi, Willem Alberts, Jacques du Plessis, Teboho Mohoje, Duane Vermeulen, Schalk Burger, Fourie du Preez, Francois Hougaard, Johan Goosen, Marnitz Boshoff, Jean de Villiers, Damian De Allende, Jan Serfontein, Juan de Jongh, JJ Engelbrecht, Sibusiso Sithole, Frans Steyn, Lwazi Mvovo, Bjorn Basson, JP Pietersen, Cornal Hendricks, Willie le Roux.

On Saturday the Ikey Tigers lost their Intervarsity clash against Maties 18-19, ending a ten-game winning streak they had engineered in the Varsity Cup and in the first few games of the WP Super League. The game was a fiercely fought battle, with the Ikeys leading 18-16, with only minutes to go. The Stellenbosch side snatched the win away from them within the final minutes at the hands of a penalty try. When coach Kevin Musikanth was asked about what he thinks went wrong he said “our game plan was to maul them and scrum them, which worked completely but unfortunately the overall reward wasn't there.” Referring to the break-down area he said “The yellow cards that the opposition are usually given when consistently pulling down mauls, and the penalty tries that are usually awarded when front rows repetitively stand-up didn’t happen. So there was a lot of frustration here.” The coach also cites frustration at the fact that the side threw an intercept pass at the beginning of the game. On the bright side, however, he said “our ‘plan’ worked as we completely dismantled the Maties pack - worse than we did in the Varsity Cup and we did pull ourselves back and 18-16 with a minute to go.” In terms of what areas of the game they team will be looking to improve on, he said, “we need to deal with making correct decisions on when to throw the 50/50 passes. The miracle offload, as much as it worked in the Varsity Cup final, doesn't always work and none of them came off in this match which was disappointing.” Speaking about which areas of the game he believes the Tigers were impressive in he commented “Stellenbosch were determined and had nothing to lose and were fully committed to the cause which was good, but fundamentally, despite us being off-form our set phases were way better than theirs, their scrum got completely dismantled and we let ourselves down by not capitalizing here. Unfortunately the luck wasn’t with us this time.” Tomorrow, the Ikeys return to the WP Super League, taking on SK Walmers in their fourth match of the tournament. The side will look to bounce back from Saturday’s loss with a win against the Walmers, who have given impressive performances thus far in the season and will be sure to prove challenging. “We will fight back and are determined to compete harder and are 100 percent committed to the WPSL. All teams lose so we mustn't cry over spilt milk and stand up and fight and make it right. We need to learn our lesson,” said the coach.

Defending championes UP-Tuks got off to a solid start in the opening round of the 2014 Carlton Cup competition on Saturday. UP-Tuks beat Harlequins 54-21, scoring 8 tries to 3. Home team Quins surprised UP-Tuks by taking a 7-0 lead in the opening minutes, but at the break the visitors already had the win in the bag with a 33-7 lead. “We are satisfied with the result as it was the solid start we were aiming for, but we all know this was not a true reflection of our potential - by far. We have some fine tuning to do in the days leading up to the match against Oostelike Eagles (24 May), but all in all I am very encouraged by the positives we can take from the win against Harlequins,” commented UP-Tuks 1 Head Coach, Pote Human. Outside centre Jacques Rossouw had an outstanding UP-Tuks 1 debut, not only scoring two of his team’s eight tries, but also adding another 14 points with seven conversions for a personal contribution of 24. Winger Enver Brandt, another UP-Tusk 1 debutant, scored three tries with fullback Riaan Britz, hooker Jan Enslin and replacement lock Graham Logan adding the other five pointers. ♦ Other results: 2: Tuks Fezelas 57, Harlequins 11. 3: Harlequins 15, Tuks Pumas 14. u.21: Tuks Jongspan 48, Harlequins 3. u.19: Tuks win by default.