Castle Murray Cup Draw 2010

The Castle Murray Cup draw for 2010 took place on Monday 19 July, 2010.

The Murray Cup is KwaZulu-Natal's oldest club rugby competition, first played for in 1890. This knock-out tournament was named after TK Murray Esq, the first President of the KwaZulu-Natal Rugby Union, who also donated the trophy. The Murray Cup, like the game in the province, started in Pietermaritzburg and was first won by Savages with only five teams participating in the inaugural competition. Durban involvement only started in 1899.

South African Breweries are to be thanked for becoming the first company in Kwa-Zulu Natal to support rugby at Club Level. This association dates back to 1958 when they first sponsored the competition which was then called the SAB Murray Cup Challenge. In the 1970s, Lion Lager became the brand name attached to the competition. The Murray Cup[ took on its most recent name change in 1997 when SAB changed the tournament sponsor to Castle Lager, in line with their change to Castle as their brand associated with with South African rugby.

Durban Collegians have won the Murray Cup on 34 occasions, more than any other club in the competition, second are College Rovers who first won the trophy in 1899 as Durban Rugby Club, and have since won it a total of 14 times.

The 2009 Murray Cup was won by College Rovers who beat Old Boys on a try count when the match remained drawn after extra time - and exciting and fitting final to our Premier Knockout competition.

With SAB re-establishing their association with the Murray Cup this year, a number of innovations are being introduced, one fo them being the playing of a qualifying round which sees the Top 8 First Division Clubs challenging the eight Premier Division Clubs for a place in the Castle Murray Cup Knockout Competition. The opportunity to participate in this prestigious tournament has been welcomed by the 1st Division Clubs - a further bonus being that they will be at home for the challenge match. The eight losers of the qualifying round will okay for the Junior Murrray Cup Knockout Competition.

The prize money this year will see the winners receive R50 000, losing finalists R20 000, losing semi-finalists R12 500, losing quarter-finalists R7500 and losing qualifiers R2000.

After each game played, prizes will be awarded by Caste for Man of the Match:

Adjudicators for the Qualifiers and Quarter-Final matches will be the respective team coaches, but for the semi-finals and fnal, this task will be kindly done for us by Gary Teichmann and Wayne Fyvie.

The KZNRU and clubs would like to express their gratitude to Castle.

SAB’s involvement in Rugby

Sponsors of Lion Cup Trophy (Lion Lager)
Sponsors of Springboks (Lion Lager 1992 – 1997)
Supplier to Springboks (Castle Lager 1997 – 2000)
Sponsor Springboks (Castle Lager 2000 – 2004)
Associate sponsors  Springboks (Castle Lager 2004 – 2010)
Sponsor of Varsity Cup (Carling Black Label 2010 - )
Murray Cup (1958 -2003)
SAB first supported the Murray Cup in 1958 thereby making it the SAB Murray Cup which later became known as the Lion Lager Murray Cup and finally the Castle Murray Cup.