Ikeys draw with Tygerberg

UCT 23:23 Tygerberg

 UCT’s last home match of the season – the final whistle had visitors Tygerberg cheer and the Ikeys shake their heads in disbelieve – another disappointing draw.

The first minute of the match saw hooker Kenrick Brown take a knock and go down, which had replacement prop Ian Matthew take over the lineout duties for the rest of the encounter. This unfortunately limited the UCT forwards attacking options as clean ball from their own lineouts would be a rarity. 

 Uncaracteristically for a varsity home-game the wind was a north-wester blowing in from the town side and Tygerberg made good use of it, releasing pressure having it behind them in the first half. The students made the classic mistake of giving their opponents a sniff, allowing an early try after a lineout maul and  an intercept try to find themselves down 12:7 at halftime. 

A try shortly after the break had the students take the lead, but unfortunately the wind died down soon afterwards so UCT didn’t have much of an advantage in their backs and couldn’t play as much for position as they would have liked to. The Ikeys kept doing most of the playing, with Tygerberg relying on turnovers to attack. The guests always looked dangerous on UCT’s mistakes and young speedster Marcelo Sampson was instrumental in doing damage control, by twice chasing down Tygerberg attackers after clean breaks and putting in try-saving tackles. 

With 30 minutes to go UCT coach Dave Mallet started ringing the changes. Gareth Wright reliable boot kept the scoreboard ticking and shortly afterwards lock Bodo Sieber, back from a rib injury had an excellent break, showing great strenghts beating three tacklers and should have sealed the win, had it not been for WP and Stormers stalwart Egon Seconds at fullback who somehow managed to scrape him off the tryline. The defence got penalised, but UCT failed to score out wide, so the score was 23:20 with a couple of minutes to go. As so often this season the Ikeys did well to hang onto the ball to wind down the clock, but eventually a penalty was awarded. Tygerberg successfully kicked to posts – clearly very happy with the draw, rather than trying to go for the win.

Not the best day at the office for the Ikey Tigers, but all to play for next week in the final match against Maties in Stellenbosch. 

UCT: 1  Ashley Wells, 2 Kenrick Brown, 3 Dylan Rodgers, 4 Matthew Johnson, 5 Michael Passaportis, 6 Monty Taljaard, 7 Jody Burch, 8 JJ Gagiano, 9 Daniel van der Merwe, 10 Gareth Wright, 11 Marcelo Sampson, 12 Kevin Foote, 13 David Edgar, 14 Pete Haw, 15 James Richards

Reserves:
Vakai Hove, Ian Mathew, Bodo Sieber, Craig Kleu, Shaun Stewart, Matt Rosslee, Andre van Niekerk

(Photos: Butch Deuchar)