Ikeys beat National Club champs
FNB UCT recorded a superb 21-12 away win over the National Club champions - and WP Super League champs - Hamilton's in Oranjezicht on Saturday afternoon.
The students, playing with the wind, racked up an 18-0 half-time lead and never looked back - despite playing into the wind in a physical second half which saw two of their players sin binned.
Those two sin-binnings aside, however, Ikeys head John Dobson was a happy man afterwards, telling varsitycup.co.za: "I was very chuffed with the performance - it was a good win against very good opponents.
"Playing with 14 men for 60 minutes against a quality side like Hamilton's is not the best idea, but the guys kept their composure in key stages and I actually thought we left a few points out there in the end."
Outside centre Mark Esterhuizen kept up his superb try-scoring form this season for UCT when he crossed for the first points of the day basically straight from the kick-off, with lion-hearted flyhalf Matt Rosslee missing the conversion.
The always impressive Marcel Brache, playing on the wing this week, nervelessly 'chipped' over a long-range penalty for an 8-0 lead, before he scored a well-taken try when Hamilton's failed to control a Nic Groom box kick, Rosslee adding the extras.
A Rosslee penalty before half-time made it 18-0 and the visitors could easily have made it 23-0 soon after the break, only for replacement lock Don Armand to knock on over the goalline after some good work from Marcello Sampson.
Hammies did score two second-half tries, but a second Rosslee penalty goal - in between their two scores - kept UCT out of range for an important and well-deserved victory, their forwards laying the foundation in between some heavy exchanges up front - but the likes of Ash Wells, Hanyani Shimange, Martin Muller and Jody Burch (all back from Vodacom Cup duty) clearly relished the opportunity to front up against Hammies.
UCT remain the only unbeaten side in the Super League this season and next weekend's Intervarsity clash against Stellenbosch could well decide which team represents Western Province at the National Club Championships later this year.
The scorers:
For Hamilton's:
Tries: Gillomee, Bock
Con: Jinka
For FNB UCT:
Tries: Esterhuizen, Brache
Con: Rosslee
Penalties: Rosslee 2, Brache
The FNB UCT team: 15 Tiger Bax, 14 Marcel Brache, 13 Mark Esterhuizen, 12 Sean van Tonder, 11 Marcello Sampson, 10 Matt Rosslee (vice-captain), 9 Nic Groom, 8 JJ Gagiano, 7 Nick Fenton-Wells (captain), 6 Jody Burch, 5 Martin Muller, 4 Bodo Sieber, 3 Grant Kemp, 2 Hanyani Shimange, 1 Ashley Wells.
Replacements - from: Mark Goosen, Chris Heiberg, Don Armand, Yaya Hartzenberg, Sam Peter, Sharief Hendricks, Pete Haw, Paul Cohen.
The WP Super League log (at a glance):
(Under played, won, points)
1. Maties 7, 5, 27
2. False Bay 5, 4, 19
3. UCT 4, 3, 16
4. SK Walmers 5, 3, 15
5. Durb-Bell 4, 3, 14
6. Victorians 6, 2, 10
7. Hamilton's 4, 1, 7
8. Villager's 4, 1, 6
9. Helderberg 3, 0, 5
10. NNK 4, 0, 0
* Match photo courtesy of Peter van As.