The University of Johannesburg (UJ) Varsity Cup rugby team suffered their second straight loss after going down to the University of Pretoria (UP) 19–40.
UJ lost their opening home game on 4 February against North-West University and then had their next home game postponed due to load-shedding on 11 February and on 12 February they lost their second match in a row.
UJ came out very spirited in the first half against UP looking to avenge their opening loss to North-West University. They put pressure on the visitors but unfortunately failed to convert that into points on the scoreboard. UP rode the UJ storm and eventually got on the score sheet with a try from Wian Van Niekerk. Tinus de Beer converted giving UP a 7–0 lead in the first 10 minutes.
UJ replied with a penalty from Jeanluc Cilliers followed by a try from lock Khanya Ncusane with Cilliers adding the extra points for a 10–7 lead. UP responded in tremendous fashion as their forward Frederick Potgieter latched on to a magnificent pass and scored a try on the stroke of halftime. De Beer converted and the teams went into the break with UP leading 14–10.
UP was the first to score in the second half via a converted try from Johannes Eloff to increase their lead to 21–10 with 30 minutes to play. UP’s centre Enrich Cronje added to UJ’s pain with another converted try (28–10) and not long after it was 35–10 when Potgieter scored his brace with De Beer converting. De Beer was in the mix again, this time scoring a try which he failed to convert.
With 10 minutes remaining and UP up 40–10, UJ managed to score a consolation converted try courtesy of Odwa Nkunjana.
UJ is propping up the log and is hoping to turn their luck around away against the Cape University of Technology on 18 February. The game will be televised live on television.
Also check out:
