Maties maintained their unbeaten status in Varsity Sports Sevens with another full house of victories in Margate on Friday.
The Stellenbosch side followed up their win in Plett last week by retaining the USSA title as well, and their confidence was clear as they ended the opening day as the only unbeaten side.
Persistent rain made life incredibly difficult for most sides to gain any fluency, but Maties seemed unaffected by the soggy conditions and showed some slick handling – most impressivly in their last-movement win over UJ.
UJ would have taken heart from pushing Maties right until the final whistle, and did not drop a game for the rest of the day with their toughest win coming over the NMMU Madibaz.
NMMU took the last place in the Cup for Pool A, with their victories over UCT and TUT sending both teams down to contest the Plate on Saturday.
The bolters in Pool B were Plett Plate champions Kovsies who showed that they are in Margate to aim for the main prize.
The only game they did not win was an arm-wrestle with UP-Tuks, played when the weather was particularly severe, which remarkably ended 0-0.
Kovsies also managed to hand last-week’s runners up NWU-Pukke their only defeat of the day, and both sides will be joined in the Cup by UP-Tuks.
Tuks secured victories over Plate-bound UWC and Limpopo, so they will have to raise their game if they are going to compete with the top sides in the Cup action on Saturday.
All of the Day One Sevens results:
NMMU 45-7 TUT
UJ 12-10 UCT
UP-Tuks 48-0 Limpopo
UFS 19-10 UWC
Maties 57-0 TUT
NMMU 12-5 UCT
NWU Pukke 59-0 Limpopo
UFS 0-0 UP-Tuks
Maties 36-0 NMMU
UJ 45-5 TUT
NWU-Pukke 12-0 UP-Tuks
UWC 38-0 Limpopo
Maties 36-7 UCT
NMMU 12-15 UJ
UFS 12-0 NWU-Pukke
UP-Tuks 12-5 UWC
Maties 14-7 UJ
UCT 38-0 Limpopo
NWU-Pukke 31-0 UWC
Varsity Sports Sevens logs (Under played, won, points)
Pool A
1. Maties (4, 4, 19)
2. UJ (4, 3, 10)
3. NMMU (4, 2, 9)
4. UCT (4, 1, 7)
5. TUT (4, 0, 0)
Pool B
1. UFS (4, 3, 15)
2. NWU-Pukke (4, 3, 14)
3. UP-Tuks (4, 2, 11)
4. UWC (4, 1, 6)
5. Limpopo (4, 0, 0)
Day Two fixtures:
Cup:
Maties v UP-Tuks, 11.20
UJ v NWU-Pukke, 11.40
NMMU v UFS, 12.00
Maties v UFS, 13.00
UJ v UP-Tuks, 13.20
NMMU v NWU-Pukke, 13.40 (Supersport 7)
Maties v NWU-Pukke, 14.40 (Supersport 7)
UJ v UFS, 15.00 (Supersport 7)
NMMU v UP-Tuks, 15.20 (Supersport 7)
Final, 16.10 (Supersport 7)
Plate:
UCT v Limpopo, 12.20
TUT v UWC, 12.40
UCT v UWC, 14.00 (Supersport 7)
TUT v Limpopo, 14.20 (Supersport 7)
Final, 15.40 (Supersport 7)
