Gimme nine! History made at Varsity Cup game

10 February 2016 - 02:10 By Craig Ray

It took only eight minutes of the 2016 Varsity Cup for history to be made, with the first-ever nine-point try in competitive rugby. The tournament has long been a platform for innovation, where the accepted boundaries and norms of the game have been tested with a view to making it more exciting.The latest innovation sees teams able to gain nine points from a try if the move originated inside the attacking team's own half. If a play starts between the halfway line and the 22m line of the defending team, then a try will count seven points.The honour of scoring the first nine-pointer fell to NWU Pukke flyhalf Barend Janse van Rensburg.It was Van Rensburg's quick tap penalty inside his own half that started the sweeping move, which he rounded off as Pukke beat Tuks 38-15.With the conversion Pukke earned 11 points for the score, which took them from 7-0 to 18-0 in a matter of seconds.The motivation behind the rule change is to encourage attacking rugby, but after one round it didn't appear to change the approach much - it was the only nine-point try at four Varsity Cup matches played on Monday night.Meanwhile, a Twitter conversation between two former Springboks, James Small and Brendan Venter, proved just how the new rule has divided fans. This is how it went:Small: "11-point try ... What a lot of rubbish ... Spoiling a great tournament with gimmicks. #VarsityCup"Venter: "Why dont you like it?"Small: "can make the contest very one-sided ... 6-point difference from try to try just a step too far ..."Venter: "The opposite is also true. Can keep the contest alive."Additional reporting by sports staff writer..

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