On a night that saw the Cape Varsities bounce back emphatically, defending champions Tuks are now the only unbeaten side, topping a seriously congested log.
The Pretoria side ground out a less than pretty 26-0 victory over Shimlas in front of their home crowd on a night which saw pace-setters Pukke, and NMMU, lose on home turf.
Pukke had their colours lowered in Potchefstroom by a desperate Maties side who ran out 33-21 winners in the end, proving yet agains that you can never write off a side in maroon.
It was Maties’ first win of the season, after going down to NMMU and UCT, and the four-try victory on the road will give the three-time champions plenty of confidence as they look to recover from a disappointing start.
It was a good night for the Cape sides as the Ikey Tigers followed up their win over Maties last week by beating the Madibaz 26-13 in Port Elizabeth to reclaim the Monte Taljaard trophy.
NMMU have held the trophy – played for in memory of former UCT and Grey PE flank Monte Taljaard – for the last two years, but will have to give it back after losing their first game at home since 2012.
In the early game, one that did not deliver much for the highlights reel, UJ proved too strong for their Joburg rivals Wits, scoring four tries to notch their first victory of the season and get their campaign up and running.
Wits remain rooted to the bottom of the table after that 32-15 defeat without a single log point as they continue to search for their first win in the competition.
This leaves Tuks in pole position, just 1 log point ahead of Pukke, whilst the Madibaz and the Ikeys round off the top 4. UJ’s victory has them up in 5th position, with Maties and Shimlas tied on 6 points with 1 win and 2 bonus points each.
The Shield saw 2 away wins as defending champions CUT continued their unbeaten run, beating the TUT 39-18 in Pretoria, whilst UKZN secured their first win of the season with a 30-8 victory against UWC in Bellville.
In the Young Guns tournament, Tuks had to work hard to maintain their unbeaten record with a hard-fought 28-24 victory over Shimlas, while in Port Elizabeth NMMU and UCT ended deadlocked on 13-13.
The scorers:
Pukke 21-33 Maties
For Pukke:
Tries: Obi, Swart, Smit
Cons: Engelbrecht 2
For Maties:
Tries: De Villiers, Kôtze, Du Preez, Jordaan
Cons: Du Preez 3
Pens: Du Preez 2
NMMU 13-26 Ikeys
For NMMU:
Tries: Bernardt, Acker
Con: Hauptfleisch
For UCT:
Tries: McDonald, Xoli, Stewart
Cons: Grant 3
Pen: Grant
Tuks 26-0 Shimlas
For Tuks:
Tries: Smith, Liebenberg, Hugo
Cons: Schoeman 3
Pen: Schoeman
UJ 32-15 Wits
For UJ:
Tries: Haznar, Nel, MacDonald 2
Cons: Schmidt 3
For Wits:
Tries: Fraser, Jonck
Con: Torrance
Pen: Torrance