Tuks hero drop, score and place for victory in humdinger against Pukke
The rugby teams of Tuks and Pukke sensationally kicked off the 2020 Varsity Cup on Monday night with a game full of excitement, of which the outcome was only determined in the final seconds.
Cometh the hour cometh the man is the best way to describe the victory of the University of Pretoria (Tuks) when they beat the University of Northwest (Pukke) 42-40 in the first Varsity Cup encounter of 2020 on Monday night.
The flyhalf, Fiela Boshoff, was without a doubt Tuks’s man of the moment.
As expected, the game turned out to be a humdinger. With about two minutes of play left the visitors had a one-point lead. Tuks were however relentless on the attack. Northwest’s desperation to keep the home team from scoring led to them making a crucial mistake. They got penalised.
As Boshoff lined up the ball for the penalty attempt, the near-record crowd got quiet. Real quiet. The moment before boot and ball connected, you could hear the proverbial pin drop. Seconds later as the ball soared through the posts, there was utter pandemonium.
“A dream come true,” is how Boshoff afterwards described his dream debut for Tuks in the Varsity Tournament.
He had just reason being elated. It is not often a player gets to drop, score and place in a game. During the first 25 minutes, he had scored all of Tuks’s 13 points. Boshoff’s heroics led to him getting the player of the match award.
In spite of the ten tries being scored, exciting is the one word that can’t be used to describe the on-field action. It was mostly a battle between the forwards with Tuks’ big men having the best of it for most of the game.
Tuks’s hooker, Werner Fourie, was without a doubt the other hero. He scored three tries.
The biggest concern from Tuks perspective was the ease with which Northwest was able to breach their defence. They scored six tries to Tuks four. One of Northwest tries came from an interception.
Tuks head coach, Nico Luus, afterwards admitted to being somewhat worried. But he hoped the mistakes made on the defence could be ascribed to it being the first game of the season.
Luus was genuinely impressed with his team’s never say die attitude. For most of the first half, Tuks had to play catch up. At halftime, Northwest had a four-point lead (26-22).
Tuks captain, Marius Verwey, ascribed the victory to absolute teamwork.
“We had one goal. That was to win. From the very first minute, each one of us was prepared to put their body on the line. We kept that up for the full 80 minutes. What also excited me was our big match temperament,” said the big lock forward.
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