Four teams sounded serious warnings in the first round of the 2012 Varsity Cup on Monday night, with Shimlas producing the best performance of the lot.
UCT 10 / 38 Shimlas:
The men from Bloemfontein, winless in Cape Town until Monday, beat the defending champions Ikey Tigers by 38-10 – claiming a four-try bonus point in the process.
Shimlas led 18-5 at half-time, as they scored two tries in each half, but – ultimately – it was their deadly defence that won the day; the men in Blue & White having enough try-scoring chances and then being left to chase the game.
Shimlas right-wing Nico Scheepers, although not a try-scorer, kicked seven from seven on a relatively windless day in the Cape and it was the Kovsies who were smiling the broadest after the opening match of the 2012 tournament.
Maties 52 / 2 TUT:
Maties began their 2012 campaign with a 52-2 thrashing of TUT.
The Maties, no doubt still reeling from a trophy-less 2011, scored seven tries to nil, with forwards Os Hamman (prop) and Grant Hattingh (lock) scoring a brace and a hat-trick of tries, respectively.
Centre Wessel Coetzee walked off with the official Man of the Match honours, but coach Chean Roux would have been happy with his pack’s powerful showing on the night.
Tuks 23 / 8 UJ:
Another powerful display worth noting was Tuks’ clinical 23-8 win over UJ in Pretoria.
Tuks led 18-0 at half-time, thanks to first-half tries by Hayden Groepes and Franco Mostert, with captain Jono Ross scoring their third try in the second half.
A late try from UJ back JR Esterhuizen accounted for their only points on the night – last year’s losing semi-finalists having been well and truly outplayed by a side that also managed to beat them twice in last year’s Varsity Cup.
NMMU 16 / 26 Pukke:
Lastly, and by no means the least, the NWU-Pukke opened their account in Round One of the 2012 Varsity Cup, thanks to a hard-fought 26-16 win over the NMMU’s Madibaz in Port Elizabeth.
The visitors led by 26-8 at half-time, but lost the second half 8-0 against their determined opponents.
Pukke coach Hannes Esterhuizen would have been happy with his team’s four-try win, especially after the poor start they made in last season’s tournament, but their scoreless second half would have been a slight concern for him.
Meanwhile, the first ever Varsity Young Guns matches took place on Monday, with two away victories signalling the start of this all-new students-only, Under-20 tournament.
- In Cape Town, the Baby Shimlas set the scene for their senior side with a 27-20 win over UCT’s Under-20’s
- In Port Elizabeth the NWU-Pukke U20’s were simply too strong for the Baby Madibaz – thrashing them by 87-5.
There were also two Varsity Shield matches – in Johannesburg and in Alice, with both home sides emerging victorious.
- Wits ran in six tries on their way to a convincing 43-20 victory over UWC
- Fort Hare opened their account this season with a determined 36-21 win over UKZN.
The bit of the UCT / Shimlas game that I watched was excellent. [Unless you are an Ikeys fan that is].
No seriously, the Ikeys looked kak and I think that that made the Shimlas look good.
Sou graag vandag wou sit en chat, maar kannie… moet nou gou ‘n Netwerk behoorlik aanmekaar gaan knoop, dan ‘n CNC Masjien op ‘n klient se bestaande Netwerk gaan konfigureer… en dan het ek ‘n freegin Fisio-afspraak 13:30.
My rug is nog steeds gebogger en in spasma op paar plekke…. dink sy gaan my moor wanneer sy vrywe en masseer vandag!
Ikeys made many handling errors, but in fairness the shimlas defence was pretty physical as well. Dont quite agree, that the ikeys made the shimlas look good, they were good. the Ikeys handling was just shite! But even if the converted all the chances, i reckon the scoreline would have been closer, but 28 points is quite a gap!
3 @ Cheetah4eva:
Go and look at my running commentary during the game, most notably in the first half and you’ll see that I have to agree with the writer of this Article.
Ikeys made some telling line breaks through Nick Holton, their No 10 (no less than 3 clear breaks right through Shimlas), also by the Strong No 11 Ikeys winger, Winter.
Each time though, a last pass was knocked or the try butchered in some other way by Ikeys.
So, Ikeys did not fare as badly as the score suggests, specially in the 1st half… and in fact DID make Shimlas look good…. but as the game progressed, Ikeys got exponentially worse whereas the Shimlas got exponentially better. Second part of the second half, Ikeys was plain woeful!
Ikeys also persisted to their own peril with kicking to touch every single one of the plethera of penalties they got within striking range, whereas Scheepers opted to kick for goal for Shimlas.
So Ikeys made Shimlas look good, which resulted in Shimlas becoming good, as the match wore on.
Shimlas deserved their win, kudo’s to them.
Dan Parks has retired from interrnational rugby with immediate effect! Sorry know this is a Varsity cup thread but posted what is big news for us here as it was the 1st thread on the page. Go well Dan when on song you did a great job!
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