Guts, ruthless defence and fitness made the difference this past weekend during the Varsity Cup encounter in which Tuks got to beat Wits 48-25. 

During the first forty minutes, it was all Wits. They had the home team pinned down in their half.

Wits’ forwards dominated in the lineouts and their hooker, Morné Brandon, scored twice from driving mauls to assure Wits leads 18-15 at half time. All that kept Tuks in the hunt was brilliant defence, and fullback Alex-Zander du Plessis’ accuracy when kicking for poles.

Tuks head coach, Nico Luus, credits his team’ slow start to nerves. 

“Most of our players sat out for nearly a year, so, understandably, they were at first slightly nervous. Overall, I am happy. The players managed to execute the game plan to near perfection. A definite highlight was our defensive play,” Luus said after the game.

Louritz van der Schyff scored within two minutes of the second half. That was the game-changing moment as the movement that led to this try started in Tuks’s own half. It meant it was a seven pointer. Van der Schyff and Johannes Coetzee (winger) impressed with how they combined to set it up. Their effort gave Tuks a 27-18 lead and from then on, there was no stopping Tuks. 

Being the one to score Tuks’s first try must have been special to Van der Schyff. He had been side-lined by a knee injury for most of the last three years. Yesterday was the first time he got to play.

Tuks’s captain, Sango Xamlashe, admits that they made things difficult for themselves in the first half. 

“We were not as ‘oiled’ as we wanted to be, but once things started to gel, we were able to lift our game to the next level. It was exciting to see how dangerous we can be,” the captain remarked.

What impressed Jaco Bezuidenhout (vice-captain) was how his teammates were prepared to put their bodies on the line going for the hard tackles. 

“It took guts to win. I would say the hard work we had been doing is starting to pay dividends. It felt like Wits began to tire during the second half while we played at the same intensity,” Bezuidenhout commented.

On Thursday at 16:00, Tuks play UJ, who lost 46-13 to the Ixias from CUT this past weekend. Luus does not read a lot into the result. 

“UJ is a better team than the result suggests. A lot of teams are going to start playing better rugby the more they get to play,” he said.

Luus emphasizes that they ended their celebration for winning their first game at midnight on Sunday. The only thing that matters now is improving on the things they did wrong.

“We definitely need to work on our scrums and lineouts. There are no big issues. In the lineouts, it is mostly about getting our timing right. There is also a new game plan. The players need to understand it,” Luus concluded. 

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