Ikeys are blown away at the Green Mile

DURBAN: ON a dry and dusty Green Mile, whipped by wind that had lingered on after cancelling the Cape Town Cycle Tour, the University of Johannesburg proved too much for the home side, Ikeys. Playing into the wind first up, the men from Johannesburg played the conditions expertly winning 40-12 to push their claim for a playoff spot, and a home semifinal.

Two tries, and two superbly taken conversions in blustery conditions saw UJ take a comfortable 18-0 lead into the break. However, the University of Cape Town did show a bit of muscle as they worked into the wind in the second half. The first try after the break came from the home side and it looked as if a comeback may be on the cards, but UJ were having none of it as they grabbed another try of their own.

There was a period of 10 minutes where the visitors were reduced to 14-men, and Ikeys were clinical enough to take advantage of that period to get another score. But again, UJ were too good to take it lying down as they carried on running in the tries when restored to a full complement of players.

The win sees UJ move on to 21 points, and puts them four points below Maties who were leading at the beginning of this round, although they had a bye this week. Tuks, with their win later in the evening, replaced Maties at the top of the standings albeit on points difference.

In the later kickoffs, Tuks proved to be too much for Shimlas in Bloemfontein, as they won there 65-19 to put some breathing room between the two sides who were fourth and fifth respectively on the table before the game kicked off. Tuks would have been looking for a win to climb up the log themselves, but also to deny their near-rivals any chance of pushing into the playoff berths.

At the same time, the Central University of Technology made up for their 100-0 hammering suffered at the hands of Tuks the week before by narrowly losing to the defending champions Pukke. Only five points separated CUT and Pukke as the visitors from the North-West won 43-38, scoring seven tries to CUT’s four.

The final game of the evening was another tight affair as Wits and the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University battled for the win in Johannesburg. The game finally ended with victory for Wits, 30-20, making it consecutive wins after they defeated Pukke the week before. Wits made sure of the result by clawing their way from 17-17 with 30 minutes to play by grabbing a try and two massive penalties.