Cape varsities stake their claim
Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:09
In a repeat of the first round of the inaugural FNB Varsity Cup, the table-topping Ikeys host the Pukke from NWU at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and Maties, who finished second, host Tukkies at the Danie Craven Stadium. If you are Cape based you could catch two great games of student rugby.
It is the third time that Chean Roux’s Maties will have played the Tukkies this year.
The first game in the opening round of the tournament saw the Tukkies come back from being down 5-31 to draw 31-all with the mighty Maties in a thriller. In the second – a non-varsity cup game – Maties ran out more comfortable 40-25 over their northern rivals.
The Maties ought to have a bit too much fire power for the Tukkies, with the likes of Sarel Potgieter and the 26-year-old No.8 Bennie Booysen in sparkling form.
However the Tuks seems to have hit form, going unbeaten in the George bumper weekend, including victory over the much vaunted Pukke and local rivals TUT. But they may not have enough fire power, even with wing/fullback prodigy Gerhard van der heever back in the mix.
Both Maties and Tukkies have fallen prey to the log winning UCT, who face the only team that lowered their colours - Pukke.
UCT have been consistently the best side in the tournament, but will be well aware that Pukke beat them and that the Pukke are in good form - having bounced back from their loss to Tukkies in George to beat their traditional intervarsity rivals Shimlas and then demolish UJ to ensure that they qualify for the play-offs.
In essence they have had to play a 'last 16 match' and a 'quarterfinal' before they meet the Ikeys in the semifinal.
But they have immense experience at the sharp end of tournaments and this may be the edge they need.
UCT would argue that this can be offset by the fanatical support they enjoy on their 'Green Mile'.
Their skipper JJ Gagiano appealed that "all those UCT and Province rugby fans who love open running rugby should come up to Varsity on Monday afternoon [14.30 local time]".
UCT have shown the tournament how winning, running rugby should be played and arguably the team that has best adapted to the new ELVs.
They may feel hard done by that their reward for winning the league with a game to spare is to face the professional PUkke outfit.
But in a sense, if they have beat Pukke they have beaten everyone in the event and that should be motivation in itself.
This game - which matches the power, efficiency, experience and professionalism of Pukke against the youth, joi de vivre and excitement of the Ikeys - should be an absolute cracker.
But a home win could set up a classic Ikeys-Maties Final – the most traditional of all intervarsities.
Either way this tournament has been a huge success and has produced Rugby That Rocks, as the slogan goes.
This Monday will be no exception.
The UCT –Pukke game kicks off at 14.30 at UCT if you want to watch live or 16.30 on SuperSport.
The Maties-Tukkies game is live at 18.30.
