Resilient Tuks defeat Ixias 68-25 for bonus-point win
Tuks kept their chances of reaching the semi-finals of the Varsity Cup tournament alive with a big win over the Ixias of Bloemfontein.
Tuks came from behind to beat CUT 68-25 at the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg on Monday evening.
The Ixias of the Central University of Technology (CUT) led 25-21 at half time at a cool FNB Stadium.
Tuks’ fans must have thought another defeat was coming their way after a disappointing season by their standard so far while the men from Bloem, with an impressive start to the season, and almost causing an upset against Shimlas last week, were hoping for a similar performance.
It took only eight minutes, for Duncan Matthews to crash over and put Tuks up 7-0. Nine minutes later Tuks winger, Duhan van der Merwe doubled his team’s score.
A moment of brilliance brought CUT back into the match, as Henry Immelman ran through everyone, hugged the sideline and popped the ball over back inside for Darron Baron to finish off. He converted it and the scores were 14-11 after 21 minutes.
Just four minutes later Riaan Britz extended Tuks’ lead again with a try, the scores moving to 21-11. CUT were fighting hard and pulled another one back after Jasper Wiese broke through a few tackles and bundled over the tryline to take the score to 21-18.
On the stroke of half time, CUT launched a 55-metre penalty kick, which hit the upright and after a break by Tuks, the ball dropped loose and flanker Mosoeu Maruping kicked the ball forward, gathered the ball and sprinted to the tryline. His seven-pointer putting his side in the lead for the first time in the match. The score 25-21 at half time.
In the 55th minute, Riaan Britz scored his second of the match, stealing the lead back from CUT, as FNB Tuks led 28-25. Then, straight off the restart things got worse for CUT as Luke van der Smit sidestepped a couple of defenders before off-loading to Britz, who ran half the length of the field for a nine-point try and his hat-trick.
With 20 minutes to play, Tuks retained possession for a number of phases and when André Warner went over just beside the posts, his team led 50-25.
Duhan van der Merwe crashed over six minutes later for another seven-pointer. Then not long after that, Van der Smit crossed over for a nine-point try as the match ended 68-25 to FNB Tuks.
