Bertie Jacobs
Valiant effort. A very valiant effort, boys. The North-West University (NWU) Eagles came agonisingly close to reaching the Varsity Cup playoffs, beating Wits 31–3 on a soaking wet Fanie du Toit Sports Grounds pitch on Monday 11 April. Although the home team scored five tries and secured a bonus point, they were foiled by what had transpired in Johannesburg just a while earlier.
UJ had needed to beat Tuks for the Eagles to have a chance of proceeding to the playoffs, but Tuks buckled down to force a 36–19 result. That was that then. The Eagles were out for revenge and set out to lay waste to that other team from Joburg. Burly captain Sampie Swiegers scored a brace of tries, with Theunis Pretorius, Tino Swanepoel and Pienaar van Niekerk each dotting down too. Martin Venter added two conversions.
It was a bittersweet end to the Eagles’ campaign. After a few initial slip-ups they had found a steady gear and notched up some memorable wins. A low point was their 35–14 defeat to UJ in Johannesburg – where is a UJ win when you need one? – but they triumphed 17–8 against Tuks and eclipsed a surging Shimlas side with 32–22. Speaking of which, Shimlas ended top of the log, followed by Ikeys, Maties and Tuks. The top three teams each claimed seven wins from nine outings, while Tuks and the fifth-placed Eagles each claimed six scalps. Tuks ended on 30 log points and the Eagles on 29. Maties went on to beat Ikeys 58-19 in the first semi-final match and Tuks had a bit of a harder time in their 29-21 victory over Shimlas. Thus, the final will be contested between Maties and Tuks at the Danie Craven Stadium in Stellenbosch on Monday 25 April.
Let us look at some positives. It is always difficult to single out a player after a tournament but paint me pink and call me silly if eighth man André Fouché did not prove himself to be an absolute beast. What a find. Sampie Swiegers should also be lauded for the manner in which he led his team. Oh, he was the Player that Rocks on Monday, by the way. And as a unit the team showed heaps of character and mountains of resolve.
Photo: Asem Engage/Barco Greeff
