Tuks crush Varsity Cup newcomers
Nollis Marais's Tuks team on Monday night had no mercy on the University of the Western Cape, the newcomers of the Varsity Cup tournament.
Impressive is an excellent way to describe Tuks’ 70-12 drubbing of University of the Western Cape (UWC) on Monday night in their Varsity Cup encounter in Bellville.
It was not the ten tries Tuks scored that should excite fans. Nor Tinus de Beer‘s perfect kicking performance. The biggest positive from Monday night’s game was that Tuks executed their game plan to near perfection.
Being the strategist he is, Nollis Marais (head coach) realised early on in the afternoon that the wind could be a definite factor in the game. He considered it crucial that Tuks win the toss and play into the wind in the first half.
Luck was on the visitor’s side and they got to do exactly that.
The Tuks players admit that they were under real pressure for the first 25 minutes.
“UWC came out guns blazing. Which meant we were playing more rugby in our own half than we would have liked,” explained Tuks centre Lourens Pretorius.
According to Bart le Roux (tighthead), as was expected, they didn’t panic and stuck to what they had planned on doing. The proverbial “dam wall” broke in the last ten minutes of the first half which led to Tuks scoring three tries in quick succession.
Theo Maree who as a scrumhalf is continuously testing any team’s defence dotted down for Tuks first try. Johan Grobbelaar (hooker) then scored twice to give Tuks a 21-3 lead at halftime.
With the wind in their backs during the second half, there was no stopping Tuks. Try as they may the UWC just weren’t able to keep the visitors from scoring. Stephan Smit, Marius Verwey, Ruan Nortje, Ciaran Dayara, Irvin Ali, Hanru Sirgel and Jacobus Eloff all made sure that the numbers on the scoreboard kept on changing by scoring tries. De Beer was in a “Swiss efficiency mode” not missing one conversion.
Tuks flanker, Hanru Sirgel, played another blinder ensuring that he got the man of the match award for the second time in a row.
With this victory, Tuks ensured they remain second on the Varsity Cup log with 20 points after five games. Maties still top the log with 24 points. Shimlas is third with 15 points and North West fourth 14 points. Shimlas and North West have only played four games.
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