Pukke send a strong message
The Pukke had a point to make and they sent a strong message to the other contenders as they turned their season around with a convincing 51-17 win over the visiting TUT in Potchefstroom on Monday night.
And the bonus-point win saw the Potchefstroom students cement their place in the top four on the standings of the FNB Varsity Cup presented by Steinhoff International.
The star of the occasion was new lock Francois Robbertse, who replaced captain Dirco Rautenbach - scoring a hat-trick of tries in an impressive display.
Robbertse was the one on the receiving end of the powerful PUK maul for each of his tries.
The pack also set up tries for No.8 PJ van Zyl and Robbertse's replacement Thabo Molete late in the game.
It was clearly a rejuvenated Pukke side, which showed their intentions early in the game with wing Johannes Seerane (pictured, right) scything through the midfield, but the pass to outside centre Ruan Jacobs went astray.
But it was not long before Seerane pulled his ears back and scored under the posts after Worsie Kotze, who left his kicking boots at home, cut through the defence.
Robbertse, who ignited the fire in the pack, was on the receiving end of a 20-metre maul to score PUK's third try.
For a change PUK's defence was rock-solid, but the powerful Johan Swartz ran through a few feeble tackles to score the visitors only first half-try.
The scoreline of 17-10 did not suggest it, but it was a half which Pukke dominated and they should have scored a few more.
After the break it was one-way traffic as Robbertse collected his second and third try with two more also going to the pack of forwards.
Hansie Graaff scored a consolation try for TUT, but by then they had buried themselves in three yellow cards and a red.
Worsie Kotze took the score to 51 with a seven-pointer at the sound of the hooter.
The scorers:
For FNB Pukke:
Tries: Seerane, Samaai, Robbertse 3, Van Zyl, Molete, Kotze
Cons: Kotze 3, Jacobs
DG: Jacobs
For FNB TUT:
Tries: Swartz, Graaff
Cons: Oosthuizen 2
Pen: Oosthuizen
The teams:
Pukke: 15 Theuns Kotzé, 14 Muhammed Shuaib Samaai, 13 Ruan Jacobs, 12 Wouter Watermeyer, 11 Johannes Seerane, 10 Neill Jacobs, 9 Andries Mahoney, 8 PJ van Zyl, 7 Siya Mdaka, 6 Savvas Nel, 5 Markus Fourie, 4 Francois Robbertse, 3 Johan Coetzee, 2 Stoffel Duvenage (captain), 1 BG Uys.
Replacements: 16 BW van Dyk, 17 Dewald Coetzee, 18 Thabo Molete, 19 Jaco Lötter, 20 Janis Terblanche, 21 Kempie Rautenbach, 22 G Luckan, 23 Martin Dreyer.
TUT: 15 Adilo Coutriers, 14 Johan Swartz, 13 Hansie Graaff, 12 Simphiwe Mtkulu, 11 Thabo Motau, 10 Jaco Oosthuizen, 9 Manny Raposo, 8 Emile Verster (captain), 7 Ryno Lopes, 6 Vincent Gwavu, 5 Dewald van Deventer, 4 Johan Steenkamp, 3 Braam van der Merwe, 2 Dean Muir, 1 Juan Pike.
Replacements: 16 Alfred Khoza, 17 Jacques van Rooyen, 18 Wikus Botes, 19 Athi Mtay, 20 Theunis Schoeman, 21 Felix Godlo, 22 Ruan van Loo, 23 Marco van Deventer.
Referee: François Veldsman