The by now legendary words of the former Springbok, Boy Louw, “look at the scoreboard” is perhaps the best way to view UP-Tuks’s 23-6 Varsity Cup victory over CUT.
Last night’s performance at home was far from a faultless display, but then again the only thing that mattered was that UP-Tuks should win. They are now four points closer to perhaps qualifying for a semi-final playoff.
The home team was indeed in for a torrid time in the first 15 minutes. CUT’s forwards struck an earlier psychological blow when in the very first scrum they humiliated UP-Tuks pushing them back with utter ease. Diehard fans could be excused if for the briefest of moments they thought “please not another dismal Varsity Cup campaign again”.
Fortunately, the UP-Tuks players weathered CUT’s early onslaught, and like true slow poison, they started to take control.
By halftime, UP-Tuks was leading 8-3 thanks to a try by Stephan Smit and a long-range penalty by Tinus de Beer.
Throughout the second half, there were signs that the UP-Tuks players are capable of pure brilliance, but critical errors and lousy decision making prevented them from finishing off what they intended to do. That is why they only managed to score two more tries in the second half. Ciaran Dayaram scored in the 53rd minute with Wian van Niekerk also dotting down.
Theo Maree (scrumhalf) received the “player that rocks-award.”
Nollis Marais (UP-Tuks) was afterwards disappointed that his team could not score a fourth try as that would have given them a valuable bonus point.
One aspect of last night’s game that genuinely excited Marais was his team’s defence. At times it took pure guts to keep CUT from scoring. What concerns him is that his forwards conceded seven penalties in the scrums.
“There are quite a few things we need to improve on before our next game against UJ. One of it is our play in the set pieces.”
UP-Tuks suffered a significant setback with their tighthead prop, Denver Prins, having to leave the field due to a broken leg. One Marais concerns before the start of the Varsity Cup was the depth in his squad.
The UP-Tuks Young Guns ran amok beating CUT 71-7 after leading 50-7 at halftime, but the score is not an accurate reflection of what happened on the field. The winning team made far too many errors.
Dabeon Draghoender (UP-Tuks Young Guns coach) admits to it.
“We allowed far too many turnovers as well as conceding too many penalties. It is something that is going to cost us especially when we play against the stronger teams. However, it was only our second game of the season. Considering what happened in our warmup game against Pukke ‘tonight’ was quite an improvement but we need to improve at least by 100% before taking on Maties in two weeks.”
Dewald Donald (prop) was undoubtedly one his team’s heroes.
It usually is considered a significant feat when a prop scores a try. Donald scored four tries against CUT. It is something he has never done before.
On Monday UP-Tuks will be playing UJ in an away game.
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