Three matches, three victories and the only undefeated team in the Varsity Cup Tournament.

This is the official status of the Tuks rugby team after Monday night’s brilliant comeback effort against Maties in Pretoria.

The game will be remembered from a Tuks point of view as one of the greatest comebacks. At halftime, Tuks trailed 17-5.

However, is was a different team that took to the field in the second half. Tuks scored 19 points, while Maties could not add any. The final score was 36-17.

This is the third consecutive time in two years that Tuks have beaten Maties.

According to Tuks’ captain, Dillon Smith, there were “harsh words” spoken in the dressing room at halftime.

“It was necessary. Our back line struggled. It’s not entirely their fault. We struggled to build momentum up front. That’s why it was necessary to speak up during halftime. It had the right effect. Within the first five minutes of the second half, our winger, Munashe Dukuswa, scored a try. That was the turning point. Everyone then played with more confidence,” Smith explained.

The captain said the game was largely decided by the two packs of forwards.

“We put Maties under a lot of pressure in the scrums, which led to them making mistakes. We scored quite a few tries from rucking mails. In the lineouts, especially in the first half, we struggled. It was slightly better in the second half. We kept the ball more from our own throw-ins, but we will have to work on our lineouts,” he remarked.

Smith believes that the best thing about Monday’s game was that there wasn’t a moment when his team felt like they were out of the game.

“We all believed for the whole game that we were going to win because we had each other’s backs. Yesterday’s win against Maties was better than last year’s in the Varsity Cup. It’s really nice to win in front of your home crowd. The crowd’s encouragement is what makes you want to play at your best,” Smith said.

Tuks’ next match is also at home when they take on the Central University of Technology (CUT) from Bloemfontein next Monday. On paper, it seems like a foregone conclusion that Tuks will win. However, Smith makes it clear that they are not taking anything for granted.

“You can’t afford that in Varsity Cup rugby. We are definitely not going to take our foot off the pedal. We don’t want to slip up. You want to capitalise on the games where you feel you are the better team. If we lose, we can make things difficult for ourselves later,” he concluded.

As things stand, Tuks are the log leaders with 15 points after three games. The Northwest Eagles (Pukke) are second with 12 points after three games, followed by Shimlas, Ikeys and UJ all with 10 points. Maties have six points, CUT 2 and Varsity College’s Emeris 1.

Northwest Eagles, with 23, have scored the most tries so far. Shimlas boasts 22 tries while Tuks have scored 15 tries so far.

Tuks Young Guns are also still unbeaten. On Monday, they got the better of Maties, winning 43-25.

Kickoff for Monday’s game against CUT is at 19:00.

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