#TuksRugby: Defending champions on the rampage in opening round

Posted on April 29, 2019

UP-Tuks had a dream start to the 2019 inter-provincial Volcano Super League on Saturday, 27 April by overwhelming newly crowned Gold Cup champions, Rustenburg Impala in the opening round of the competition.

UP-Tuks, defending champions just missed out on a century, but the final score of 90-0 would have been disturbing news to the other competing clubs.

In all fairness to Impala it should be said that the 2019 national club champion did not field its best side due to varying factors. Some of Impala’s best senior players called it a halt after the Gold Cup final and some could not play due to injury.

Even so, Impala took a huge gamble by taking on UP-Tuks with a less than average team that was no match for the defending Volcano Cup and Carlton League champions. For Impala things really fell apart in the second half when UP-Tuks scored 64 points (10 tries).

Steven Moir, UP-Tuks’ fly-half contributed 25 points with a try and 10 conversions. The other 13 tries were scored by Theuns Reynolds, Johan Grobler, Gerrit Engelbrecht, WJ Strydom (2), Abri Reynolds, Bart le Roux, Franco Botha, Stefan Zerwick and Carl Els.

It was all over a very good day for TuksRugby. Tuks-Fezelas beat Witbank 1 58-0, Tuks-Pumas beat Impala III 61-0 and Tuks IV beat Witbank II 31-21.

●UP-Tuks next match is on Saturday, 4 May when they travel to Northam to take on newcomers Rhinos. Rhinos represented Limpopo in the Gold Cup competition and made into the semi-finals where they lost 36-20 to Impala.

However, Rhinos had a rude awakening regarding the standard of competition in the Volcano Super League as they were manhandled by Centurion in the opening round. Centurion won 64-25.

 

- Author Morris Gilbert

Copyright © University of Pretoria 2024. All rights reserved.

COVID-19 Corona Virus South African Resource Portal

To contact the University during the COVID-19 lockdown, please send an email to [email protected]

FAQ's Email Us Virtual Campus Share Cookie Preferences