The UP-Tuks men’s sevens rugby team had to settle for winning the plate-final over the weekend during the USSA Tournament played in Margate.
UWC won the USSA Tournament beating UJ 22-14 in the final.
It indeed was not the result UP-Tuks had hoped for, but then again results don’t always tend to be an accurate reflection of what happened out on the playing field. The UP-Tuks played a total of eight games, losing only one and drawing one. Unfortunately, in sevens rugby, it takes only one loss for any team’s goal to derail.
On Saturday, UP-Tuks was in devastating form beating TUT 26-0 in their first game, in the second game against NUST the score was 50-0 followed by 40-0 drubbing of VUT. Lastly, the team outplayed Kovsies to win 38-12.
That meant that UP-Tuks had to beat Maties on Sunday to ensure they finish top of their log. Everyone expected it to be a humdinger and the players did not disappoint. Maties dominated in the first half. Only desperate tackles by the UP-Tuks players prevented Maties from running away with the game. Maties were leading 12-0 by halftime.
It is not clear what was said during the break, but knowing the UP-Tuks coaches, Andries Kruger and Dabeon Draghoender, giving up was never going to be an option. They are firm believers in that no match is won or lost up until the final whistle blows. During the second half, a rejuvenated UP-Tuks team turned the tables on Maties. Suddenly it was Maties who had to pull out all the stops to prevent Tuks from scoring. However, they did get outfoxed enabling Tuks also to score two tries. The final score was 12-12.
Somehow the UP-Tuks players got unravelled in the game against Northwest Pukke. Gone were the clinical precision approach of the first five games. Instead the UP-Tuks players resorted to making costly stupid decisions. In sevens rugby mistakes equal tries. Northwest Pukke outplayed UP-Tuks to win 24-7.
The result meant that UP-Tuks was now playing in the Plate Competition. In the semi-final, they beat the Madibaz 35-10, and in the final, they run out the victors against CPUT winning 21-5.
The performance of the UP-Tuks team bodes well for the Varsity Tournament that will be played next week in Johannesburg. UP-Tuks has so far contested two tournaments and only lost three of the 14 games played.
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