Gutsy Ikeys claim deserved win
2 Mar 2009
A 14-man UCT side honoured Monte Taljaard in style with a wonderful 36-17 victory over NMMU in Port Elizabeth.
On an emotional night it was the Tigers that handled the conditions better and out classed their hosts in almost ever department.
The visitors made most of the early running and were rewarded in the 11 minute when the dangerous Sean van Tonder burst through a gap in the NMMU defence and used his power to force his way over the line for the opening try of the game.
The Tigers kept NMMU on the back foot and the hosts struggled to deal with the powerful running of Van Tonder and Dane Johnson in particular and with 17 minutes gone Therlow Pietersen added his sides’ second try of the evening.
UCT grabbed their third try when the impressive scrumhalf Jean-Paul Robert broke the line beautifully before sending it wide to Johnson who stepped one defender and dotted down under the posts. Pietersen added the extras and the Ikeys led 19-0.
However, the hosts finally gave their fans something to cheer about as they eventually got out of their half and after a good line break big No 8 Jaco Rayn Swanepoel powered over the line for his teams’ first points.
The Madibas got themselves right back in the game just a few minutes later when, from no where, Andre Goosen pounced on a loose ball and showcased his pace as he ran all of 40 metres for NMMU’s second try narrow the gap to just five points.
The landscape of the game completely changed at the start of the second half when Michael Passaportis was red carded for an off the ball incident. With the momentum and a man advantage NMMU would have backed themselves to turn the result around, but Pieter Engelbrecht showcased all his skills as he pounced on a loose ball, kicked it up field out-sprinted two defenders and saw off the challenge of another to score his side’s bonus point try in the corner.
Flyhalf Willem Laubscher added a penalty for NMMU narrow the gap to nine points, but despite being a man down it was the visitors that looked the more dangerous and Johnson bagged his second of the game in the 60 minute.
Pieterson had some trouble keeping the ball on the kicking tee in the strong PE wind and decided to drop the conversion to give his side a 33-17 lead and even with a man advantage it was always going to be hard for the host to get back in the encounter and in the end UCT held on for a memorable win to take home the Monte Taljaard trophy.
In the night’s other results Pukke edged UJ 19-9 while Maties maintained their place at the top of the table with a 24-14 win away to TUT.
By Andrew Worling
14 Comments
2 Mar 2009, 21:03 pm
Varsity is so much better than School Dragons!
Uh U Uh U Uh U C T!!!
Never deserved to lose to Maties, gawd I hope that doesn’t cost us…
3 Mar 2009, 07:55 am
There’s one very poor element to this article, the assumption that we all know who Monte Taljaard was and why he was being honoured by what I assume were his teammates. I vaguely remember something about a tragedy but to have this as the intro sentence and then to refer to it as an emotional night, means you have to explain why.
3 Mar 2009, 08:15 am
#2 Reserve Naartjie:
I also meant to ask about Monte?
Anybody knows the story, please, sounds like he was an ex-player of note?
3 Mar 2009, 08:17 am
The headline is the “Gutsy Ikeys….”. You then write about the “Tigers” – who are they? Ikeys and maties are part of SA history. Don’t even think of changing it and if the UCT Rugby Club is behind it then it is a shame! I also agree with Reserved Naaartjie – who is Monte Taljaard?
3 Mar 2009, 08:22 am
#4 DaveB:
First time I have heard them referred to as the ‘Tgers’ I must admit.
3 Mar 2009, 12:18 pm
http://www.google.co.za
insert Monte Taljaard
stories all there
3 Mar 2009, 12:19 pm
Monte was a player who died in a motor car accident last year! He was a great player and a great man who was a big part of the UCT family. he was a very special guy.. we will miss him every day..
3 Mar 2009, 12:35 pm
Reserved Naartjie & Pietman. I gather you aren’t rugby fans? Everyone knows that the Ikeys are known as the Ikey Tigers, where have you been?! Rather go support tennis or bowls or something
3 Mar 2009, 12:49 pm
IKEYS think they rule the world. Why do everybody always write their players up. How hard can it be to win against NMMU? If they didn’t play with that moster wind yesterday it would have been a different game. The NMMU scrum destroyed the UCT pack but still the commentators thought the UCT props were great…. WHAT IS UP WITH THAT??
Is there any pack in the competition that sucks more than UCT?
3 Mar 2009, 12:57 pm
#8 Springhaas:
I gather you’re a pr!ck.
Knowing what a Cape Town club side’s nickname has been for the last few years doesn’t equate to knowing anything about rugby.
From the tone of your post it sounds like you should go back to playing marbles or lego or something.
To anyone sensible out there, how long have Ikeys been known as Tigers? They certainly weren’t 5 or 6 years ago.
3 Mar 2009, 13:06 pm
#10 thecentre: The only reason the Ikeys are now called Tigers are because they got a mascot that is a Tiger. I’m just happy the Maties don’t call themselves the Eekhorings now.
3 Mar 2009, 14:18 pm
Springhaas I gather you don’t know what you’re talking about. My comment was about the crappy way this article referred to someone but didn’t explain who he was. You shouldn’t have to google the player’s name when a simple explanation by the journalist would do.
Springhaas rather go practice your reading skills. Doos.
RIP Monte.
4 Mar 2009, 06:59 am
#7 Rugga Legend:
Thx for the info, sad news indeed.
I still have the varsity cup games of 2007 in my kuduclub archives, will check if I can find the late Monte Taljaard there somewhere.
#11 Cheetahboytjie: #12 Reserve Naartjie:
Think I will stick with calling them Ikeys, as they are known by all Cape rugby supporters over the world.
4 Mar 2009, 07:24 am
#10 thecentre:
Mate, unfortunately they have been know as the “Ikey Tigers” since the 80′s at least. The sing song books refered to them as such, but to be hounest, not many people called them the Tigers, rather just plain Ikeys or Varsity or UCT.
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