Shimlas simply too good for Tukkies
Well, well, what a surprise in the Varsity Cup! FNB Shimlas, with only one win so far, thrashed FNB Tuks, with only one defeat so far, and they did so at Shimla Park in Bloemfontein 39-22 on a hot Monday afternoon.
The home side made the visitors look ponderous and tackled with precision in this FNB Varsity Cup presented by Steinhoff International fixture. Shimlas were more enterprising and five tries to one in the end tells the full story.
Tukkies seemed to want to do better but their skills let them down. They ran across the field when they wanted to go wide, lost the ball too easily in the tackle and, despite all their tall men, lost crucial line-outs - six of them in all.
Tukkies attacked first and had a five-metre scrum but suddenly the Shimlas' livewire scrumhalf Marlin Ruiters burst away with the ball.
Ruiters, who hails from Port Elizabeth and played for SA Schools when he was at Grey High, was a non-stop thorn in Tukkies' flesh and stole their ball four times at the scrum and scurried away with it. He was named Man of the Match afterwards.
The Shimlas attacked down the left and gave to burly wing Roelof Steyn with the blond bush of hair. He flicked inside. The Shimlas were on the attack.
From a scrum they went right and Niël Jacobs simply broke past Franco Booysen and ran through empty acres on a 40-metre run to score at the posts. He converted. 7-0 after nine minutes.
A minute later Shimlas doubled their lead. Tukkies were sort of attacking from the kick-off but dropped the ball. Shimlas captain Jaco Colyn kicked downfield where Elwyn Fransman, covering from the left, knocked on the rolling ball. Steyn was there to gather and was heading for the posts when Luvuyo Mhlobiso dived, stretched and just managed to grab his shorts from behind. Wilken Heyns was on hand to get the ball back to lock Frans la Grange who surged over far out. Jacobs converted. 14-0 after 11 minutes.
Jean-Claude Roos, the Tukkies flyhalf kicked two penalty goals, Jacobs one and then Roos his third, which was from the halfway line, to make the score 17-9.
There was a long break while the referee consulted the television match official about foul play. The upshot of the long break was a scrum. A scrum to Tukkies, but again it was Ruiters who scampered some 40 metres with the ball. He was grabbed five metres from the goalline where the Tukkies infringed. Colyn took the tap quickly and plunged over between two defenders. Jacobs converted. 24-9 after 33 minutes.
Shimlas again attacked from the kick-off, but Christian van den Berg saved. Then Shimlas attacked again, but lost the ball at the line, and then Colyn snapped over a drop to make the score 27-9 at half-time.
From the start of the second half the Shimlas roared onto the attack. Steyn was stopped at the line. The forwards battered and bashed and then they went wide to the right where Wouter Stieger was over in the corner despite a gross high tackle. 32-9 after 49 minutes. The Shimlas had a bonus point for scoring four tries.
This was followed by a long period of Tukkie attack. They used penalties to get them close - and their were plenty of those. In the second half the penalty count was 10-1 in the favour of the Tukkies. Their attacks floundered when they lost the line-outs or lost the ball in the tackle as quite calmly the Shimlas laid them low. They gave up looking for tries and resorted to Roos's wonderful boot to take the score to 32-15 with 20 minutes to play.
This was annoying to the Shimlas. From a scrum Arne Grobbelaar broke right and gave to Ruiters who was stopped at the line. The ball came back quickly and Colyn gave a short pass to replacement hooker Hans Grobler who burst over close in. 39-15 with 15 minutes left.
Tukkies tried to get a try but preferred to run at a tackler rather than beat him and there were always plenty of tacklers. Their try was unexpected and different as Mhlobiso picked up a wandering ball in his own half, charged and then chipped. The bounce of the ball beat two defenders but presented itself to Mhlobiso who scored under the posts, a brilliant solo effort. 39-22 with six minutes to play.
The Tukkies did manage another clumsy attack but the ball came back to Ruiters who hoofed it into touch-in-goal so that the referee could blow the final whistle.
The scorers:
For FNB Shimlas:
Tries: Niël Jacobs, La Grange, Colyn, Stieger, Grobler
Cons: Niël Jacobs 4
Pen: Niël Jacobs
Drop: Colyn
For FNB Tuks:
Try: Mhlobiso
Con: Roos
Pens: Roos 5
The teams:
Shimlas: 15 Llewellyn Adonis, 14 Wouter Stieger, 13 Cameron Jacobs, 12 Niël Jacobs, 11 Roelof Steyn, 10 Jaco Colyn (captain), 9 Marlin Ruiters, 8 Arne Grobbelaar, 7 Wilken Heyns, 6 André Tredoux, 5 Frans la Grange, 4 Philippus Jacobus Steyn, 3 Drew van Coller, 2 Gert Erasmus, 1 Roelof David Koorsen.
Replacements: 16 Hans Grobler, 17 Sewes Oosthuizen, 18 Willie Britz, 19 Paul Roux, 20 Johan van Niekerk, 21 Earl Snyman, 22 Shagan Windvogel.
Tuks: 15 Johan Jackson, 14 Luvuyo Mhlobiso, 13 Gerhard van der Merwe, 12 Franco Booysen, 11 Elwyn Fransman, 10 Juan-Claude Roos, 9 Christian van den Berg, 8 Willie Nel, 7 Ntokozo Mashele, 6 Danie Crous, 5 Henjo van Niekerk, 4 Johan de Bruin (captain), 3 Peet Vorster, 2 Branco Visagie, 1 Ettienne Breytenbach.
Replacements: 16 Kurt Haupt, 17 Danie Oosthuizen, 18 Peet Botma, 19 Devin Oosthuizen, 20 Ignick Windvogel, 21 Shaun Davids, 22 Erich van der Westhuizen.
Referee: Sindile Mayende
Assistant referees: Andries Kruger, Phillip Kotze