The tournament (also known as the FNB Varsity Shield presented by Steinhoff International for sponsorship reasons) was the sixth season of the Varsity Shield, an annual second-tier inter-university rugby union competition featuring five South African universities.
Following a disruption during the Varsity Cup Round Three match between UFS Shimlas and NMMU Madibaz[1][2] and general unrest on various university campuses, all fixtures scheduled for 29 February were postponed to 4 April,[3] with the semi-finals and final also postponed by a week.
[4] After a meeting by the executive management of Varsity Rugby on 9 March, it was decided that all remaining matches in the competition would be played at neutral venues and that matches should resume on 14 March.
[5] The tournament was won by Wits for the second time; they beat UWC 39–2 in the final played on 18 April 2016.
[6] The final league standings for the 2016 Varsity Shield were:[7] Wits and UWC qualified to the final, with Wits hosting UWC.Wits was automatically promoted to the 2017 Varsity Cup, while UWC qualified for a promotion play-off.