Pukke ended Day One undefeated as UWC upset UJ and defending champions, Kovsies.

Kovsies vs UWC

It was end-to-end action in the opening minutes of the match as the defending champions looked to get their title defence back on track while UWC looked to continue their strong showing on the back of an upset against UJ.

After tight defending by both teams, it was Kovsies who were on the board first, after a try by Dian Badenhorst, who pushed and pushed and UWC couldn’t halt him from the tryline.

But extended pressure by UWC paid off when Jeremy Papier crossed over under the posts on the stroke of halftime to take the scores to 7-7 into the break.

The second half on a knife’s edge with UWC spending most of the first five minutes defending inside their half.

With just a minute to play it was all square at 7-7, but in the dying seconds of the match UWC’s Nieyaas Johnson slipped a sublime inside pass to an on running Carlisle Castle, who scored to hand UWC the win and another big scalp, winning 19-7.

Tuks vs Maties

Massive rivals in all forms of rugby, Maties and Tuks had both found momentum before they met in their final match of Day One.

It proved to be two forces countering one another in the opening exchanges until Tuks broke through for a 7-0 lead. Maties continued to fight back and Maties’ Pieter Schonraad was at the heart of all their plays, pulling the strings. But it went into half time 7-0 to Tuks.

Tuks came out all guns blazing in the second and Impi Visser scored after three minutes to extend his side’s lead. As the match went on, Maties lost steam as Tuks seemed to keep shifting u a gear.

At the final hooter, sloppy Maties play allowed to Jacques Rossouw to kick a loose ball through to score beneath the posts during the Power Play, as the score ended 24-0.

UJ vs UFH

UFH have been fighting all day and have been unlucky not to get a result.
UJ had been electric all day, but UFH were as up for a fight as ever.

In the opening minute, Aphiwe Dyanti turned on the gas for UJ, handing off his UFH defender to set up Juandre Michau who put them ahead 7-0.

Not long after that, Dyanti stepped his defender again, to set up Devon Mare for their second. But UFH fought back as Siphosethu Tsotsa scored to make it 12-7 at half time.

One minute into the second half, Siphuxolo Zaula broke through the UJ defence for a 14-12 lead. UFH were agonisingly close to wrapping it up, but a die hard cover tackle by Morne van den Berg on UFH’s 5 Zaula stopped him a metre from the tryline. The resulting counter attack moments later saw UJ’s hero, Van Den Berg cross the UFH tryline and seal victory for the men in orange, 17-14.

UCT vs WSU

It was a match-up that saw two teams who would have been disappointed with their opening day of Varsity 7s, hoping to finish on a high heading into Day Two.

UCT were the ones to open the scoring when Brad Janse van Rensburg bundled over the whitewash to put the Cape Town side up 7-0.

The rest of the first half was an exchange of unforced errors and missed opportunities until UCT ended strongly, as Liam Furnis stepped, twisted and turned to cross over and give his side a 14-0 lead at the break.

WSU started the second half strongly, early pressure forcing UCT back into their dead ball area. But once again, they couldn’t convert that into points. A turnover led to a UCT counter attack and Janse van Rensburg split the WSU defence for his second. UCT led 21-0.

But WSU had counterattacking ability of their own and pulled it back to 21-7 after their flier Luvo Matiwane found some space down the left wing.
They scored another through Sive Tshaka after the hooter as the match ended 21-17 in UCT’s favour.

Pukke vs Madibaz

Within the first 40 seconds of the match, Madibaz made their intentions known when Nathan Gogela finished off a team effort to put his side up 5-0.

Pukke were stunned again in the fifth minute as excellent interlinking play by Madibaz put Christiaan Willemse down the left wing, and a sleek offload to Riaan Esterhuizen set him through for the try.

But Pukke hit straight back after the restart with two tries of their own through Ryno Wepener and Dewet Terblanche to lead 14-10 half time.

Just 50 seconds into the second half it was Pukke who started the stronger of the two, as Timmy Prince danced and twisted to slip through three Madibaz defenders and stretch over for the try during the Power Play. They led 24-10.

The match began slipping away from Madibaz when Elof Scheepers ran through untouched to score between the sticks and put Pukke 31-10 ahead. A try in the dying minutes made it 36-10 to Pukke.

Results:

Kovsies 7-19 UWC

Tuks 24-0 Maties

UJ 17-12 UFH

UCT 21-17 WSU

Pukke 36-10 Madibaz

Log after Day One