The opening game of the 2017 Varsity Cup, presented by Steinhoff International, saw victory elude FNB UJ, who lost 12-16 to the 2016 champions, FNB NWU-Pukke, at the Johannesburg Stadium.
All the Varsity Cup matches are played on a Monday. The first round took place on January 30 and the second round will be on February 6.
The rain certainly did not damper the mood in the stadium as the vibrant home-partisan crowd was treated to a high-octane start from both sides.
The teams were going at each other and it wasn’t until the 13th minute when FNB NWU-Pukke got onto the scoreboard first with a penalty from fly half Schalk Hugo. The champions started to grow in confidence and interactive passing from the backline soon saw FNB UJ’s defence torn in half as winger Jimmy Mpailane bolted down for the first try of the game, making it 0-10 after 20 minutes.
The home side got onto the scoreboard with a penalty from Divan Nel. The fly half did it again with another penalty from his own half to narrow the lead. He then made it a hat-trick of penalties to put FNB UJ within a point of the game. Nel, with the last kick of the half, put FNB UJ in the lead with his fourth successive penalty of the half, giving the home side a slender advantage going into the second half.
FNB NWU-Pukke came out of the half quickly and applied early pressure on FNB UJ. The home side was able to deal with the pressure and sustained FNB NWU-Pukke. The away side eventually broke through and took the lead, through Hugo, to 12-13 with 15 minutes remaining.
The pressure was now on FNB UJ as they looked to turn the game around. The crowd got behind their team in hopes of sparking a likely victory. However, NWU-Pukke put the game further away from FNB UJ, as Hugo scored his third penalty to make it 12-16. It was a tense finale to the game, but FNB NWU-Pukke were able to hold on and grabbed a 16-12 victory over FNB UJ.
FNB Player that Rocks: Wilmar Arnoldi (FNB Pukke).
The results of the other matches were: FNB Wits (21) vs FNB UFS-Shimlas (26), FNB Madibaz (36) vs FNBUCT-Ikeys (8), FNB UP-Tuks (13) vs FNB Maties (9).
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