UJ vs A-Square-Forklift Alberton
The University of Johannesburg's rugby teams' visit to Alberton, on June 6, marks a history of 38 years of participation between UJ’s predecessor, RAU, and A-Square-Forklift Alberton.
ALBERTON – RAU Rugby Club, established in 1968, visited Alberton for the first time in 1977, the year the university won the Lilienfield Trophy and was promoted to the Pirates Grand Challenge League with effect from 1978.
That very first league game between these two clubs saw the students emerge as the winners, by 25-13.
Dries Maritz, Piet Cloete and Johan Gouws were the students’ try-scorers. Lee Barnard added 13 points with his kicking boot.
For Alberton, Tommy van Zyl and Gert Bothma scored tries and Collin Davey converted one try and succeeded with a penalty.
RAU finished as runners-up in their first year in the Pirates Grand Challenge League, and shared the top Trek trophy with Alberton in 1979, a feat they repeated in 1984 and 1986.
Alberton was sole winner of the Pirates Grand Challenge League in 1982, shared the trophy in 1979 and 1983, but lost in the 1981 final, to RAU.
One of Alberton’s sweetest victories over RAU happened in 1999, when the home side was undefeated in the league after defeating the university side and lost only in the final, to Randfontein.
The following year, 2000, RAU won back the trophy and lifted it for the first time under the name of UJ in 2007.
Kick-off for the first teams is at 16:00 on Saturday, with the curtain-raisers getting underway from 13:15.
