Wrap Round 6

Welcome back to the news site that is UCT RFC Internal League Rugby. What a ripper of a round after such a long lay-off. Who knew the powers that be that instituted varsity’s latest money-spinner Winter School would have such an impact on the happenings of Internal League.

Eight weeks of hard gym and no rugby outlet through which teams could vent their new found Floyd Landis testosterone meant that when sides hit the ground last night they hit it running…and passing and diving and tackling and some even flying…

A few sides had the foresight to organise mid-season friendly matches and tours to keep their rugby selves occupied. The Nadoes swept through Plett and Knysna like one would expect them too, Smuts thought about hitting Knysna but apparently there is a better and pinker time of year to do so, so they cancelled that, the Shebeen Boys had their normal practice matches against the Olympic Gentlemen’s Club first cricket XI and the Pulse Panthers went abroad to play in Spain. Panthers narrowly lost to the Bulls which is disappointing as no one like it when the Bulls win…

---------------------------------------Tours are always fun!

Moving back to last night's round, it was inevitable that it wouldn't be without some mishaps. Rochester arrived with their best 9 players and had to borrow a passer by so they could forfeit the points in style by playing 10s against Soco Thoco. ST are without a doubt the worst side to be forced to play the open style of 10s against and they racked up 65 points before the rotund ref had to call it early from sheer exhaustion.

The first B league game saw the Wildboys rack up 36 unanswered points against the Spanners attributing the victory to their new playing strip. Who knew Tiger Woods’ 4th round red colour mind games would have such an impact on worldwide sport although the WB might have taken it to far, from a distance it looked like Mao Tsedong’s red army was doing infantry drills on the C field.

The 7pm time slot was stacked with real viewing pleasure. The A league fixture between Kopano and Ubumbo was a titanic struggle and with 7minutes left the score line was still nil all. Kopano then dropped their Belson mobile into 6th gear and scored a cracking try in the corner that was unconverted giving them a tight 5-point advantage. It was then with their backs against the wall that Ubumbo resurged to gain important territorial advantage and sneaked one under the polls that was converted for the win in the final minute. I was going to use the phrase on the ‘stroke of full time’ but silly jokes like that can be deadly when the ref was as old as Doc Craven himself. Not only was ‘that’ era so far ago but he also seemed to want to enforce the ‘laws’ from that era.

The B league game was the one sided affair of the Pulse Panthers back to true form as they ran Smuts ragged for their four try win. Panthers played some rugby of the sparkling wine variety scoring some breath taking tries and showing that there is a place for a skilled, expansive game in SA. Smuts are no meek opposition so Panthers victory should send a severe play-off message to the other sides.


The final B league game of the night saw Hidding Hall and the Turtles grind out to a misfortunate 7 all draw. Hidding looked to have a handle on the game with a laudable first half and a good try but the Turtles showed some heavy mettle to get back into the game with gutsy forward play, good pressure and there own try. Incidentally that is the Turtle first non-loss of the season.

The big game of the night was always going to be the top of the table show down between the two remaining unbeaten sides in the A league, which was also the contest for the Sobhar Shield. Well they were both unbeaten until the Nadoes showed their superiority to comfortably beat the Purple Cobras 35-0. The score line does no justice to the Cobras loss as they kept in it everywhere else but on the scoreboard right up until the crusader-esque last 15min performance of the Nadoes. You can’t beat experience.

The score at half time should have been 0-0, except the Nadoes had magic in their line-up. The magic came in the form of the mercurial feet and brain of flyhalf Paddy Fitzgerald. He scored an amazing solo effort cutting through the defence like Dan Carter going through a green wall and then had the deftest of touches to reward a killer running angle for the blind side wing to score. Paddy 14 Cobras 0. Pressure and experience meant the Nadoes cruised the second half for another impressive victory.

There are only 3 Rounds left before the play offs and the fat lady has certainly not begun to sing, although she was present there last night. She came dressed in white to support her young Cobra (snake?) loose forward Nic Fenton-Wells.

See you on Women’s Day.

Team of the Week: The Nadoes were once again very impressive, Ubumbo had a come from behind buzzer victory but the award goes to the Spanish inquisitors, Pulse Panthers. It was nice seeing a solid team victory and not the usual solo efforts from a few individuals. Ciao.

Hit of the Week: This award isn’t as constant as say a Carinus girl, but like a Carinus girl when it appears everyones glad it wasn’t them. The receiver of the biggest hit and the accompanying award was big Ubumban winger Dan Watson. He had an impressive run up the nasty touchline of the B Field before getting stopped in his tracks by a monster hit from the lanky outside Kopano centre Rolo Louw. Just shows some things aren’t genetic.

Try of the Week: Slow ruck ball in the 22. Bad ball delivery. Off side rush defence. These usually contribute to going backward or a turnover. Not when Paddy Fitzgerald is your first five. Cobras I would like to introduce you to my left foot, this is my dummy, this is my right foot, this is my jink, this is my swerve, Mr 15 please meet my step and thank you very much I’ll convert it too. If only Dave Mallet was watching…