Ikey Tigers travel to Bloem

The FNB Ikey Tigers are soon to be off to Bloemfontein to take on the other Freestate contender FNB CUT in their second Varsity Cup fixture of the season.

Both teams kicked off their respective campaigns with a loss, UCT to 2015 champions and Bloem based UFS Shimlas, and both will be looking for a better result come Monday evening. In last season’s fixture, the FNB Ikey Tigers emphatically won the match by a score of 90-8. 

UCT head coach Hanyani Shimange remains confident that his side will soon build up a run of positive results. “Right now it’s not even about the result, because we know that will come. We just need to focus on our game and improve wherever we can, and that’s when we’ll get the results we want. It’s all part of the process,” Shimange said.

“It’s our first away game, and travelling to Bloemfontein is always going to be a tough fixture.” Shimange added.
 “We know our areas of concern. Our scrums could have been better in the last game, but our line-outs were very good. Our possession was also impressive, and we’ve been able to take some positives from our last performance.”

Shimange has only made two changes to the starting line-up that took on FNB UFS Shimlas, with Nathan Nel and Joel Smith starting at right wing and full back respectively. Smith comes in the replace livewire no 15 Khanyo Ngcukana, who was drafted into the Stormers team to play the Jaguares on Saturday.  

FNB Ikey Tigers team to play FNB CUT:
15 Joel Smith, 14 Nathan Nel, 13 Xoli Lihleli, 12 Hendrik Lategan, 11 Chibale Suwilanji, 10 Rob Anderson, 9 Dylan Tidbury, 8 Guy Alexander (C), 7 Luke Stringer, 6 Jason Klassen, 5 Gary Porter, 4 Mark Prior, 3 Michael Kumbirai, 2 Brenton Greaves, 1 Joel Carew.

Replacements:

16 Keagan Timm, 17 Msizi Zondi, 18 Hugo Olwethu, 19 Nyasha Tarusenga, 20 Steven Wallace, 21 Hilio De Abreu, 22 Gerard Pieterse, 23 Sam Theron

The FNB Ikey Tigers will play FNB CUT at the CUT Rugby Stadium in Bloemfontein on Monday, the 15th of February at 18:30. The game is not televised – live updates are available on https://twitter.com/ikeytigers

By Wessley Thring