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Varsity Cup (Gallo)
UCT Ikeys and NWU Eagles will meet in the final of the 2023 Varsity Cup.
NWU Eagles marched into the final with a hard-fought 19-10 victory over Maties in Potchefstroom on Monday night. The half-time score was 7-3.
The Eagles were the first to score in the 9th minute when Tino Swanepoel received a good pass from Sylvester Hassien following a brilliant piece of play. Zinedine Robinson landed the conversion.
It was a tight, physical game between the two former champions at the Fanie du Toit Sports Ground for much of the first half. The only other points came from a drop goal by Maties’ Jurie Matthee.
A fast start to the second half by the Eagles saw Swanepoel go over for his second try, a superb solo effort after evading the Maties defence. Robinson was once again successful in adding the extra two.
The Maroon Machine fought back with a try from Aydon Topley after a driving maul while Matthee converted to make it 14-10 in favour of the home side.
Things couldn’t get worse for Maties when Marco Van Rhyn was sent to the sin bin with 10 minutes left. The Eagles capitalised on this with Jandre de Beer diving over for his try after a driving maul to claim the victory.
In the first semi-final, UCT Ikeys stormed into the final with a convincing 65-30 victory over UFS Shimlas in Bloemfontein. The half-time score was 37-7.
This is the second time in three years the Ikeys achieved this feat. For UFS, it was the second year running they were halted in a home semi-final at Shimla Park after stumbling to UP-Tuks last year.
Long-distance tries by Laro Delport and Reynhardt Croussaw the Ikeys race to a 16-0 lead after just eight minutes on the clock. Then it was the turn of Ntokozo Makhaza, Keagan Blanckenberg and Rethabile Louw to put the game well out of reach of the hosts.
A try on the stroke of halftime by Litha Nkula finally got Shimlas on the board, much to the delight of the passionate home fans.
Duran Koevort struck with a brace early in the second half while David Hayes also crossed the whitewash to bring Ikeys’ try tally to seven.
Shimlas claimed back some pride with tries through Chadd Adams, Javier Farmer and Asanda Kunene. Lezane Davis drove the final nail in the coffin for the Shimlas when he went over just before the final whistle.
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