John Dobson doesn’t look like a rugby coach. Pushed for a choice, you’d probably suggest a slightly out of shape bouncer, manning the door of a rundown dive housing Ukrainian women taking their clothes off to the sound of bad German techno. But the shaved head, the biker stubble, the low budget pink shirts, all mask a rugby brain and coaching talent that lit up UCT on Monday night, and sparked a surge of pride in my varsity alma mater.

There was a time when university rugby ruled supreme in South Africa, the old maxim running that a strong Stellenbosch side making for a strong province side, and in turn a strong Springbok side. The rise of junior rugby has knocked the varsity game off the radar: the challenge of combining a degree with the hard drinking and occasional training of university rugby hardly gets a look-in now that any 15-year-old who can catch a ball and make a passable tackle getting signed up for the Bulls in an instant.

And so, until a fortnight ago, university rugby was reduced to derby clashes against other institutions, and the rough and tumble of internal leagues. Stellenbosch turned into a morgue for the night after a UCT intervarsity victory several years ago was pure magic, Maties home turf turned blue and white for a rare Ikey Tigers celebration; and then there were the Leo Marquard Hall Lions…

A modest build and a startling lack of pace meant life as a frontline fullback was limited for me; the one game I did start in the number 15 jersey saw the opposition residence committee place a bounty of two cases of Amstel on the first big hit on me, after an innocuous suggestion on UCT Radio that said Smuts residence might have fostered a certain degree of affection amongst its members. Sensitive lot, the men of Smuts.

Cue a career in coaching, then, one that culminated with the Marquard Lions winning an epic inter-residence final 8-3, in a blistering display of running rugby… and a display that, until Monday night, was as good as university rugby had got for me. And then Dobson’s young, unfancied, no-name XV took to the field against a large, highly-rated Tukkies side from the University of Pretoria, and proceeded to put 30 points on them, playing quick, electric, thinking rugby of the sort that sends a shiver down the rugby spine.

A week earlier, Tukkies had performed a breathtaking piece of escapism, coming back from 31-5 down with seven minutes to play against Stellenbosch, to steal a 31-31 draw that underlined just why Monday night varsity rugby is such an exciting prospect. The UCT victory only reinforced that; granted, I’m not the most subjective observer in this instance, but the calibre of the rugby was exceptional — and if Francois Pienaar and national sevens coach Paul Treu, both in the crowd on Monday, agreed wholeheartedly with that sentiment, then FNB’s Varsity Cup has already given the local game a welcome new dimension.

There’s a lot of rugby still to come, with the Easter weekend seeing all eight teams in the competition heading for George for a series of clashes; it’s the Monday nights that are the real gems, though. Sitting in a packed crowd, cheering on your university, watching exhilarating rugby at furious pace — even the ELVs couldn’t get in the way of the spectacle. John Dobson’s an unlikely hero in Cape Town this week; and with university rugby enjoying a new lease of life, we’ll be seeing a lot more of him and his team, and the other seven contenders, in the Varsity Cup.