Strength and fitness made the difference on Sunday, 4 April during the 2021 FNB Varsity Cup encounter in which Tuks came out as winners against Wits with a scoreline of 48-25 at Tuks Stadium in Pretoria.

The first forty minutes, it was all Wits. They had the home team pinned down in their half. Wits' forwards dominated in the lineouts. Morne Brandon (hooker) scored twice to assure Wits leads 18-15 lead at half time. All that kept Tuks in the hunt was brilliant defence, and Alex-Zander du Plessis (fullback)'s accuracy when kicking for poles.

Nico Luus (Tuks head coach) credits his team "slow start" to nerves. 

"Most of our players sat out for nearly a year, so, understandably, they were at first slightly nervous. Overall I am happy. The players managed to execute the game plan to near perfection. A definite highlight was our defensive play."

Louritz van der Schyff scored within two minutes of the second half. That was the game-changing moment as the movement that led to the try being scored started in Tuks's own half. It meant it was a seven pointer. Van der Schyff and Johannes Coetzee (winger) impressed with how they combined to set it up. Their effort gave Tuks 27-18 lead. From then on, there was no stopping Tuks. 

Being the one to score Tuks's first try must have been special to Van der Schyff. He had been sidelined due to a knee injury for most of the last three years. This past weekend was the first time he got a chance to be on the field and play.

Tuks captain, Sango Xamlashe, admits that they made things difficult for themselves in the first half. 

"We were not as 'oiled' as we wanted to be, but once things started to gel, we were able to lift our game to the next level. It was exciting to see how dangerous we can be." 

What impressed Jaco Bezuidenhout (vice-captain) was how his teammates were prepared to put their bodies on the line going for the hard tackles. 

"It took guts to win. I would say the hard work we had been doing is starting to pay dividends. It felt like Wits began to tire during the second half while we played at the same intensity."

On Thursday, Tuks play UJ, who fall out in a 46-13 defeat to CUT Ixias. Luus does not read a lot into the result. 

"UJ is a better team than the result suggests. A lot of teams are going to start playing better rugby the more they get to play.

"We ended our celebration for winning our first game at midnight. The only thing that matters now is improving on the things we did wrong. We definitely need to work on our scrums and lineouts. There are no big issues. In the lineouts, it is mostly about getting our timing right. There is also a new game plan. The players need to understand it." 

The kick-off for Thursday's encounter is at 16:00. 

FNB Player that Rocks: Alex-Zander du Plessis (FNB UP-Tuks)
FNB UP-Tuks – Tries: Louritz van der Schyff (1x7), Dewald Donald, Stephan Smit, Clyde Lewis. Conversions: Alex-Zander du Plessis (4). Penalties: Du Plessis (6).
FNB Wits – Tries: Morné Brandon (2), Justin Brandon. Conversions: Christian Humphries (2). Penalties: Humphries (2).