Two of the University of Pretoria’s (Tuks) sports teams were crowned champions at the University Sports South Africa (USSA) championships last week.

Tuks’ rugby team has won the tournament for the second consecutive year, while Tuks women’s hockey team also got the better of the University of Stellenbosch (Maties) in the final.

The Tuks rugby boys thrashed Shimlas 43-19 in the final. The match was decided in the first half during the space of 19 minutes when Tuks scored four tries. From then on, there was no doubt about who would win. The only unanswered question was how far Tuks would win.

Coach Dewey Swartbooi’s team is well on its way to accomplishing something that very few Tuks rugby teams have ever achieved. That is to win the Varsity Cup, the Lucas Strachan Trophy, the USSA Tournament, and the Carlton Cup in the same year. Three of the trophies are already in Tuks’ display case. The Carlton Cup trophy is missing, but things are looking good. Tuks, together with Naka Bulls, are setting the tone for the competition.

– Tuks’ women’s hockey team dominated Maties from the start in the USSA final. Emily Macquet scored Tuks’ first goal and Angele Vogel the second. In five games, Tuks has scored 18 goals and conceded only two.

– To be crowned USSA men’s hockey champion team four times in a row was a tall order from the start. As they say, what goes up must come down. Unfortunately it was the Tuks men’s hockey team’s turn to come back down to earth at this year’s USSA champs. In the previous three years, they beat Maties in the final, but this time it wasn’t meant to be. Maties deservedly beat Tuks 4-2.

But the men’s team can justly claim they did not go down without a fight. In the semi-final against Wits, they staged a dramatic fightback. They were trailing 3-2 with five minutes left. That’s when drag flick maestro Luken Brunette struck by slotting the ball into the goal from a penalty corner. With that, he completed his hat trick for the match. Tuks won the match 3-1 in a penalty shootout. With nine goals to his name, Brunette is one of the tournament’s leading scorers.

– Tuks’ netball team also reached the USSA finals, but unfortunately lost 50-39 to UJ in Bloemfontein. Still, the team can hold their heads high. During the tournament they have proven that the word “give up” does not appear in their vocabulary. The team showed a lot of character in how they fought back to beat Kovsies 53-52 in the semi-final.

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