When Tuks faces off to Maties in the Varsity Cup Tournament, the only certainty is that it will be a merciless encounter, last night in Stellenbosch was no exception.

Maties ended up winning 13-7. It means they are the only unbeaten team in the competition. Tuks, however, did prove that Maties is not invincible. If it was not for one or two handling errors at crucial moments, the outcome could have been different. 

Tuks's head coach, Nico Luus, hates when his team loses but there is always that one exception. Last night's game against Maties is one.

"As far as I am concerned, it is one of our best performances. Our defensive play certainly improved by 200%. 

"The players showed a lot of character for the way they kept on taking the game to Maties. Not that it was always easy. In the second half, we played into a headwind which forced the players to adapt their gameplan. Kicking for posts, for example, made no sense. 

"Yes, the players did make mistakes, but it was the typical run of the mill rugby mistakes. One worrisome thing is the way Maties dominated the scrums, but it is something that can be fixed."

Tuks's loose forwards - Karools Smit, Hanru Sirgel and Hendrik Bezuidenhout - were again brilliant. 

Smit proved for the umpteenth time that he is without a doubt one of the best defenders in the Varsity Cup Tournament. Through his anticipation and fearlessness, he prevented Maties at least on two occasions from scoring. It also took some doing to stop him when he had the ball in hand.

Sirgel, however, seemed to have finetuned getting over the advantage line to a fine art. Every time he got the ball, the Maties defenders skills were tested to the full, and then he still had the energy to go for massive tackles.

Bezuidenhout is one of those players who are in the thick of things at all times.

According to Luus Tuks's two locks, Marius Verwey and Marcel Barnard, deserve credit for the way they played.

From a spectator's perspective, it can't be helped to wonder why Tuks's two wings, Kabelo Mokoena and Stefanus Coetzee, and fullback Alexander du Plessis were not brought more into play. They are definitely game-breakers. Coetzee scored a brilliant try after Du Plessis sidestepped through quite a few tackles.

Luus is without excuses. 

"We have identified one or two problems in the backline, but again things need to be put in perspective. Because we were on the back foot in the scrums it meant our backline needed to improvise. It was the tactical savviness of Fiela Boshoff at flyhalf and Wian van Niekerk at the inside centre that helped us to still be on the attack for most of the second half."  

On Monday Tuks plays Wits in an away game. Wits are still in the run to qualify for the semi-finals, so Luus expects another tough encounter.

Tuks: Try: Stefan Coetzee. Conversion: Fiela Boshoff. Maties: Try: Ben-Jason Dixon. Conversion: Reinhardt Fortuin. Penalties: Fortuin (2).