Publications
Partners
- The North-West Eagles claimed their second Varsity Cup final when they beat a game University of Cape Town Ikeys unit 27-25.
- The host led 20-9 at half-time, but needed to summon all of their resolve to keep out an excellent, but wasteful Ikeys.
- The Ikeys botched several try-scoring chances in the second half to lose their second final in three years.
The North-West University Eagles needed the entirety of the second half to quell a spirited University of Cape Town Ikeys fightback to win 27-25 and claim their second Varsity Cup title on a chilly Monday evening.
The hosts led 20-9 at half-time in front of their hostile and fervent home crowd and looked the stronger side, but were gradually reeled in by the visitors, who only had themselves to blame for one of the most profligate showings in a playoff game.
They botched at least five clear try-scoring chances in the second half that would have put distance between them and the Eagles, who made the most of their half-chance in the second half.
The Ikeys' inability to close out the game allowed the hosts to bury the ghosts of the 2014 final, where they allowed the Ikeys to score three late tries to win 39-33.
They did win the 2015 title, with the captain on that night Jeandre Rudolph on hand to deliver the trophy after flying in with it on a helicopter, so they had no baggage.
They were certainly fraught in the face of a stirring reply from Tom Dawson-Squibb's team, but a pair of braces from Vernon Paulo and Tino Swanepoel did the trick.
The match-box nature of the Fanie du Toit Stadium complex makes for an intimidating venue and it proved to be so for the visitors, who simply couldn't live with the home team's physicality.
This was more than evident in the scrums where UCT captain and loose-head prop Luthando Woji was completely dominated by Eagles tighthead Ruan Swiegers, who also has Currie Cup first-division experience that came through.
Woji did earn one scrum penalty that he celebrated so vigorously, he was cuffed behind the ear by referee Christopher Allanson.
Swiegers took his sole discretion on the chin and proceeded to destroy Woji at every subsequent scrum.
When Swiegers didn't get the whip hand on the stroke of half-time, the Ikeys got parity ball that, through industrious inside centre Kyle Lamb, they were able to venture significantly into the Eagles' half.
At the point of that incursion that ultimately amounted to nothing, they were trailing 20-9 and needed a major miracle to get back into the game.
That the Ikeys trailed by 11 points was also down to some brains to match the Eagles' brawn, which was mightily effective.
After Ikeys took the lead through Ntokozo Makhaza's third-minute penalty, the hosts ventured deep into the Ikeys half forcing a lineout that they lost, but then still scored through abrasive hooker Paulo in the 10th minute.
Initially, it looked like Matongo had charged down Ikeys' scrumhalf Asad Moos's clearance kick, which would have been a penalty as he came from an offside position.
This is what Woji disputed when he went for one of his white-card referrals at his disposal, but replays showed that Moos' botched clearance bounced off his own player.
With their lead at 5-3, the Eagles should have had a seven-point try two minutes after a breakout deep in their own half saw number eight Gustav Erlank ranging down the right-hand flank.
He had speedster Keano Windvogel on his outside but inexplicably didn't pass to him.
It was a missed opportunity that was met with proper groans by the crowd and they had to grimace when Makhaza slammed two further penalties in the 20th and 29th minutes that allowed the visitors to lead 9-8 at the half-hour mark.
The Eagles pack was stung into action two minutes later as they rumbled over the line through hooker Matongo.
Four minutes later, excellent interplay between backs and forwards saw Swanepoel cross over for the first of his two tries.
Zinedine nailed his first conversion after two misses and his 13th minute penalty and the hosts were now sitting pretty.
However, the Ikeys' last first-half foray was instructive, and they continued in the same vein in the second stanza.
From a sequence of play that started deep in their own half, they finished off with a seven-point try when lock Rynhardt Crous muscled his way over in the 43rd minute.
It was part of a period of play where the Ikeys asked questions of the Eagles' and twice they nearly punctured.
In the 51st minute, a sequence of play that stemmed from a David Hayes grubber was bulleted forward by busy hooker Keagan Blanckenberg, but flyers Duran Koevort and Rethabile Louw couldn't get their hands onto the ball.
Six minutes later, it was Makhaza's turn to miss the ball on the tryline as the visitors allowed the hosts to get away.
They were punished as from the clearance from Makhaza's missed opportunity, Robinson put in a well-weighted kick that Swanepoel chased well, beating Hayes to score in the corner.
Woji again went for a white-card referral to check whether Moos had been played illegally at a ruck that led to the try.
His bluff was called by Allanson as the referral failed and when Robinson converted, the hosts led 27-18.
The Ikeys were made of some serious material and continued to surge towards the line but botched two further chances.
Replacement back Rihaz Fredericks overcooked his grubber while Louw couldn't find replacement loose-forward Jason McLeod-Smith with a speculative pass with an overlap beckoning.
They then knocked the ball on with all of these errors coming in a six-minute period of dominance that should have been converted into something more tangible.
After a series of penalties, they had a 69th-minute lineout that they finally converted with a McLeod-Smith try, Swiegers used his white-card referral, but to no effect, and when Makhaza converted, the gap was narrowed to 27-25.
The game reached a tension point in the last seven minutes where the Eagles were simply unable to escape the clutches of the Ikeys' desperate attack.
It was too desperate from the visitors, who couldn't string together enough coherent phases in the red zone and when Koevort knocked on just after the halfway line in the 78th minute, it was the escape the hosts needed.
Having pinned the visitors deep in their half, they earned a turnover penalty that earned them their second title, even though a premature pitch invasion delayed Allanson's final whistle.
Scorers:
North-West University Eagles: 27 (20)
Tries: Vernon Paulo (2), Tino Swanepoel (2)
Conversions: Zinedine Robinson (2)
Penalty: Robinson
University of Cape Town Ikeys: 25 (9)
Tries: Rynhardt Crous (seven-point), Jason McLeod-Smith
Conversions: Ntokozo Makhaza (2)
Penalties: Makhaza (3)
