Student battle in the 'Bosch
UCT will travel to Stellenbosch tonight to take on Varsity Cup champions, the Maties, in a repeat of this year's final at the same venue.
The Men in Maroon triumphed 17-14 in the 2010 Varsity Cup Final - to make it three from three in this great competition - and they also won their previous WP Super League encounter against the Ikeys; 29-14 at the Green Mile back in May.
The Capetonians will, no doubt, travel to Stellenbosch as underdogs, but - according to new head coach Kevin Foote - they will "give it a go".
Said Foote to varsitycup.co.za: "It's been a tough few weeks for us... and it definitely doesn't get any easier at Coetzenburg.
"We've got some injury problems, especially in the front row, and also a few last-minute WP Amateur call-ups, but we're going out to Stellenbosch to give it a go and to make our presence felt!"
The Ikeys have not beaten the Maties since the 2008 Varsity Cup - when they met in a round robin fixture in George. Since then the Maties have beaten them in two Varsity Cup finals, with UCT's closest result (to a win) being a 16-16 draw in last year's Intervarsity clash at Newlands.
Foote, a former Maties player, added: "It doesn't get bigger than a Maties-Ikeys clash - the guys are really looking forward to the game, despite being the underdogs.
"Yes, we've had some hard games over the past few weeks, in particular against False Bay and Villager's, but we've still got a tough few weeks ahead of us with Wednesday-Saturday games for the next three weeks basically.
"We're under now illusions about tonight - especially given how impressive the Maties were against False Bay this past weekend - but hopefully the team I have chosen, given the injuries and various call-ups, will do us proud."
The Maties - who will, once again, represent Western Province in the upcoming National Club Champions - have been in rampant form in the WP Super League of late.
Last weekend, on Friday, they smashed False Bay 55-14 and look like the favourites to claim yet another Super League title.
The teams:
FNB Maties: 15 Jonathan Francke, 14 Wilhelm Loock, 13 Pieter Stoffberg, 12 Dabeon Draghoender, 11 Louw Schabort, 10 Coenie van Wyk, 9 Johan Herbst, 8 Cameron Peverett, 7 Christoff van Wyk, 6 Sam Mabombo, 5 Bertho van der Westhuizen, 4 Chris van Zyl, 3 Lourens Adriaanse, 2 Callie Visagie, 2 Hein van der Merwe.
Replacements: 16 Arno White, 17 Gerrit Jacobs, 18 Jonathan Adendorf, 19 Julian Joubert, 20 Johann Laker, 21 Albertus Delport, 22 Stephan van der Merwe.
FNB UCT: 15 Ricky Rijs, 14 Paul Cohen, 13 Marcel Brache, 12 Adrian Kritzinger, 11 Marcello Sampson, 10 Doug Mallett, 9 Scott Watermeyer, 8 Sam Peter, 7 Zandy Macdonald, 6 Don Armand (captain), 5 Martin Muller, 4 Mike Ledwidge, 3 Ash Wells, 2 Matt Page, 1 Mike Posthumus.
Replacements: 16 Khotso Micha, 17 Dylan Rogers, 18 Levi Odendaal, 19 Enoch Panya, 20 Nick Farrow, 21 André Coetzer, 22 Pete Haw.
Kick-off: 7.45pm
By James Kingston