UCT lose tight battle with SK

UCT 12: 14 SK Walmers
The Green Mile was again full of passion and support for the clash of two of the so called Super Clubs of the Western Province A league. As was to be expected, the game started with a fantastic intensity and both sides did not give an inch, running and defending all out. SK had two early penalties but missed, they did however get the first points on the board to make it 3:0. Danie vd Merwe equalised for the Ikeys after also missing his first attempt.

The defenses were rock solid and it was a super fast battle on all fronts, great excitement for the big crowd and a definite 50/50 nail biter. The half time score was 9:6 to SK Walmers, both sided had played and defended superbly and neither had come close to scoring a try.

Tim Whitehead and Kyle Brown, both witheld due to Provincial commitents had the following combined half time comment, “(Samoan International) Leota is being made to look like a school boy today by Dayne “Danger” Janns, who is on his debut start!” 

The second half started with the same physicality as the first, and any metres gained were difficult. 10 minutes into the 2nd half Danie van der Merwe equaled the scores with another penalty. After this penalty the game’s pace started to quicken even more, and it was clear the result of the match was going to be determined by the team that could last the longest.

After 65 minutes UCT made an excellent tactical kick behind the SK defense. A ruck was formed by the SK cover and UCT chasing players’. Unfortunately many of the UCT players could not make it up to the defensive line in time and Emerging Boks flyhalf Ishmaeel Dollie played the pass that saw SK cut through the patchy defense. This break led to a try in the corner by the SK full back. The conversion was missed.

UCT’s opportunities to re-take the lead were few, but in the 74th minute fullback Dave Clayton, who again had a 5 star match intercepted a pass on SK’s 10 metre line. Clayton was brought down 5 metres from the try line by a desperate cover tackle, but tried to offload to Dave Edgar from the ground but was unable to make a good pass. Edgar lost the ball and SK countered. UCT only managed to re-gain possession in their own 22 and thus it was almost a 14 point turn around. UCT pushed hard to put SK under pressure, as any points would have clinched the match, but the referee blew the final whistle, which left the final scores at 14 -12 to Oasis SK Walmers. 

Report by Chad Barker

It has been a long time since we have seen such a high class and pace game of Rugby – it really could have gone either way and albeit the narrow loss UCT can lift their heads as they had an outstanding performance.

For the Ikey Tigers young hooker Dayne Janns had a great debut, Vakai “Fish” Hove stood out with excellent work-rate, but he later admitted he had “..only ran so much to stay warm cause it was so bloody freezing”. Lock Bodo “The Door” Sieber again was a rock in defense putting in his side’s biggest hit to clinch the “Tim Lane” defense award. Young flyhalf Pete Haw was voted most accurate and varied play well under pressure but the Man of the Match was talented scrumhalf Danie vd Merwe who directed and marshalled his side’s play and like last week added an accurate boot.

Ikey Tigers:
1. Vakai “Fish” Hove, 2. Dayne Janns, 3. Dylan Rogers, 4. Rito Hlungwane, 5. Bodo Sieber 6. Mpho Mbiyozo , 7 Jody Burch, 8  JJ Gagiano (c), 9. Danie van der Merwe, 10. Peter Haw, 11.James Martin, 12. Pieter Engelbrecht 13. Dave Edgar (vc). 14. Rob Hopwood, 15 Dave Clayton 

Reserves:
Brad Gornall, Ashley Wells, Mike Miller, Craig Kleu, Enoch Panya, Matias ‘Chili’ Vergara, Matt Russell, Kevin Foote

UCT Man of the Match awards:
1st XV:            Danie van der Merwe
2nd XV:            Pietie Olivier
3rd XV:            Chris Savage
U20A1’s:         Craig Smith
U20 Babrow XV:    Jarryd Kennedy

All Club Results:

FNB UCT 1ST XV      vs   SK-WALMERS 1          LOST    12 – 14    00 – 01
FNB UCT 2ND  XV    vs    SK-WALMERS 2          LOST    05 – 12    01 – 02
FNB UCT 3RD  XV    vs    SK-WALMERS 3          WON    10 – 00    01 – 00
FNB UCT U20 A1     vs    SK-WALMERS U20A     WON    34 – 03    05 – 00
FNB UCT U20 B1     vs    VAN DE STEL U20A      WON    22 – 14    04 – 02
FNB UCT U20 C (CUBS)    PAARL U20A              LOST    27 – 28    04 – 03