Massive defeat for Fort Hare
THE University of Fort Hare Blues were no match for the powerful University of the Western Cape as they crashed to a massive 45-2 defeat in the final of the 2017 Varsity Shield competition in Cape Town last night.
The first half began with a mistake from the kick off as the Blues did not gather the kick, giving the hosts early possession in their half.
UWC took play into the Blues 22m and were clearly on top and five minutes later had two chances to go for poles after penalties on the Blues 22m, but went for the 5m line out on both occasions, eventually losing the second one.
In the 10th minute UWC scored their second try giving the hosts a 13-0 lead.
The Blues finally got their first chance in the UWC 22m in the 18th minute, and with a penalty advantage flyhalf Jeandre Christian went for a drop goal but missed.
After the strategy break the Blues came out all guns blazing, forcing their way onto the UWC 22m, however Christian knocked the ball on as the visitors missed a great chance to get on the score board.
With three minutes to go to the break Christian made another mistake, this time dropping a pass in his own 22m and then kicking the ball over the dead ball line under pressure.
From the resulting 5m scrum UWC Jantjies picked the ball up off the back before showing and going to dot down under the sticks, with Cupido’s conversion seeing the home side 21-0 up.
The Blues then had another great chance to score on the stroke of half time, but after not protecting their ball well enough at a ruck on the UWC 5m, they infringed with hands in the ruck and UWC booted the ball out to end the half.
A penalty to the Blues two minutes into the second half on the UWC 22m straight in front, allowed Christian to get the visitors on the board with a penalty, with the score 21-2.
UWC were however soon back in the Blues 22m and after an attempted clearance was charged down, the ball went out with a Blues player giving UWC a line out 10m out.
A massive drive from the line out then saw UWC over for a try to reserve hooker Ismaeel Schroeder, with Cupido converting for a 29-2 lead in the 49th minute.
The Blues job was then made even harder as their reserve forward Luyolo Batshise received a yellow card for a tip tackle and the hosts took advantage to score a converted try two minutes later to go 37-2 up.
A clash of heads in the 64th minute saw star Blues outside centre Somila Jho taken off for a concussion test as things went from bad to worse.
UWC had the final say in the match after Christian kicked possession away on attack, allowing the hosts to counter with Manuel diving over in the right hand corner for a converted score, with proceedings ending soon after to send the partisan home support wild.