Tuks's rugby team must have used up all of their "nine lives" last night on their home turf trying to ensure they remain victorious in the Varsity Cup Tournament. 

In the end, it was mission accomplished. Tuks had beaten UJ 26-24. They, however, had given new meaning to winning by a hair's breadth. After 80 minutes of play, Tuks was still trailing UJ by five points. Luckily they had the ball in hand and were on the attack. One mistake and it would have been game over. 

For 43 seconds continuously Tuks kept on relentlessly attacking UJ's goalline. All the time they were encouraged by a boisterous crowd chanting "Tuks of Niks".  It was clear that something had to give. It did. Tuks managed to set up an overlap which enabled the fullback, Lionel April, to dive over in the corner for the winning try.

It was the third week in a row that Tuks had to come from behind to ensure a victory. A relieved Tuks's head coach, Nico Luus, was, however, not amused.

"Tonight is undoubtedly the worst performance since I started coaching Tuks. One has to give the players credit for the way they staged a comeback. It takes character, but no team can afford to fall behind in every game before starting to play winning rugby. At some stage, we are going to run out of luck.

"This week, all of us players and coaches will have to do some serious introspection. We might not like what we see when we look into the 'mirror'."

According to Luus one, the most worrisome aspects of last night's performance was the lineouts. 

"In our first two games, we had a 100% record. Against UJ we battled to retain 50%. Our ball-handling skills and defensive play was all shocking."

Handling errors on the UJ goal line indeed led to Tuks twice missing out on scoring tries. 

The one thing that surprised was Tuks's onfield decision to never go for the posts when being awarded a penalty. They instead opted to kick for the corner flag. It was undoubtedly one of the reasons Tuks found themselves with their backs against the wall in the dying seconds of the game. 

Luus admitted that they might have erred but then immediately added that the reason they went for the corner flag was that they backed themselves to win the lineout and then score. 

But as the legendary former Springbok Boy Louw said decades ago: "Looks at the scoreboard."

Luus agrees with it. 

"The important thing is that we are still unbeaten and that we had scored a bonus point try in each game."

Tuks's number eight, Hanru Sirgel, deservedly got the man of the match award. From the kickoff, he was in the thick of things. Putting his body on the line bashing opponents forcefully out of the way and going for hard-hitting tackles. 

Tuks: Tries: Kabelo Mokoena, Theo Boshoff, Hanru Sirgel and Lionel April. Conversions: Boshoff (3). UJ: Tries: Musawenkosi Tshabalala, Tatendaishe Mujawo, Andre Meyer. Conversions: PW Steenkamp. Penalties: Steenkamp.