Tight at the top

Seven teams remain in the hunt to secure their spot in the knock-out phase of the competition as the battle for supremacy continues at the Varsity Sevens tournament.

UJ, UFS-Kovises, UP-Tuks, UWC, Maties NMMU and NWU-Pukke are all in the hunt to advance in the tournament. UJ lead the way with Kovsies hot on their heels, a single point behind them. Just four points separates the next five teams as the battle for the knock-out phase heats up.

Defending champions were having a bad day at the office as they suffered their second defeat of the day at the hands of a powerful UP-Tuks – who ran in four unanswered tries to shut Maties out.

UWC continued their winning ways when they were forced to work hard to earn a tough 12-7 victory over WSU while NMMU handed UCT-Ikeys their second defeat of the morning with a 22-7 win.

UWC 12-7 WSU

With confidence from their earlier victory, UWC got off to a flying start when they ran in two early first half tries to take a 12-0 lead heading into the half-time interval.

WSU got their names on the scoreboard early in the second half when they grabbed a converted try to open the game right up at 12-7. WSU threw everything they had at the Bellville students but a knock-on in the final play of the match thwarted their progress as UWC held on for a narrow 12-7 victory.

NMMU 22-7 UCT-Ikeys

UCT did all of the early attacking but found themselves trailing thanks to an intercept try by NMMU which saw them open the scoring with a converted try. NMMU continued to dominate the reminder of the half as they camped inside Ikeys’ half of the field and grabbed a late try on the stroke of half-time to go into the break with a 12-0 lead.

UCT went in search of getting themselves on the scoreboard and found reward after four minutes in the second half when a converted try narrowed the gap to 12-7. The Cape students went back on the attack from the restart and came agonizingly close to grabbing their second try of the match, only to be thwarted by some excellent Madibaz defence.

NMMU would have the final say in the match when they grabbed a power play try to close out the match 22-7.

Maties 0-27 UP-Tuks

Tuks drew first blood against the defending champions when they opened the scoring through a brilliantly worked try. That sparked Maties into life but Tuks were standing tall in defence and kept the Stellenbosch men at bay – including a try-saving tackle in the dying seconds of the first half – to hold onto a slender 5-0 lead at the break.

Tuks increased their lead early in the second half when they ran the ball from their 22 to dot down for their second five-pointer of the match. There was no way for the defending champions when Tuks grabbed their third try of the match with two minutes left in the match which increased the lead to 17-0.

The Pretoria students added insult to injury in the final play of the match when they grabbed a bonus point try in the power play to walk away with a resounding 27-0 victory.

UJ 41-0 UFH

In their first match of the day, UFH proved to be a stern test for the high-flying UJ as they managed to keep the log leaders at bay for majority of the first half. However, UJ would have the final say of the half when they ran in an easy try under the posts to head into the break with a slender 7-0 lead.

UJ were reduced to six men early in the second half but UFH failed to take advantage of the numerical advantage as they conceded a try to trail 0-14. UFH threw everything they had at UJ but they could not break the strong Johannesburg defence. UJ would run in a further two tries – including one in the power play – to stretch their lead to 31-0 with one minute remaining in the match.

UJ would run in another try during the final play of the match to close out the match with a resounding 41-0 victory to extend their lead on top of the table.

UFS-Kovsies 44-14 UCT-Ikeys

Kovsies maintained their powerful surge up the table when they grabbed two early tries in the opening minutes of the match. UCT would strike back with a try of their soon after to reduce the deficit to just five points at 7-12. UCT would leak a third try – in a power play – with one minute remaining in the first half as Kovsies stretched their lead to 24-7 at the half-time interval.

Kovsies would bag their bonus point early in the second half with a fourth try in the right corner to stretch their lead to 22 points. UCT stuck back immediately with a seven pointer of their own to reduce the deficit to 15 points with four minutes remaining in the match. The result was put beyond doubt with just over a minute remaining when Kovsies added another try to stretch the lead to 3-14.

The Bloem students were running riot as they added a power play try with the final play of the match to claim a resounding 44-14 victory.

1	UJ 7s	7	6	1	147	7	31
2	UFS Kovsies 7s	8	6	2	100	6	30
3	UP Tuks 7s	7	4	3	32	2	18
4	UWC 7s	7	4	3	22	2	18
5	Maties 7s	7	4	3	7	2	18
6	NMMU 7s	7	4	3	-47	1	17
7	NWU Puk 7s	6	3	3	14	2	14
8	WSU 7s	7	2	5	-26	3	11
9	UCT Ikeys 7s	7	2	5	-23	2	10
10	UFH 7s	6	0	6	-151	0	0