Ikey Tigers Varsity Cup preparations kick-off

The Ikey Tigers ran out overwhelming victors with the score being 60-21. The extended Varsity Cup squad had a chance to test their preparation against Varsity Shield neighbours, UWC, who have their sights set on promotion to the cup in a match on Tuesday the 14th of January in sweltering heat. UWC coached by former springbok rugby coach Pieter De Villiers have also been preparing since October so it was a good test to see where the IKEYS were with regard to their pre season effort.

After 30 minutes the game as a contest was over with Varsity racing to a 37 – 0 (5 tries) lead. This lead was spearheaded by experience IKEY varsity cup campaigners Brad “Bossie” Bosman and Ross Jones Davies (who was impeccable with the boot only missing one conversion – which in the varsity cup are valuable being 3 points a pop), Guy Shwikkard, New Zealand universities inside back, made his UCT debut running in for a try and captain Liam Slatem (scrumhalf) was outstanding in his management f the team in the first 40 minutes. Other debutants performing well were the Paul Roos duo of Chad Solomons and Jan Uys, both only 19 years old with bright rugby futures (hooker and lock) and former Matie scrumhalf James Alexander looking equally the part when he came on in the second half.

In the second half another 15 players came on for the IKEY tigers and although running out eventual 60-21 winners the game became looser and structures were a bit lost. Coach Kevin Musikanth said, “it proved that the varsity cup can be exciting no matter what the lead. With a try and a conversion being 8 points, two quick tries can give a team 16 points and that can happen within minutes, which was a good lesson for the guys to learn.”

Musikanth felt that while for a first outing his troops performed well, there is still lots that he would need to work on and iron out in the next two fixtures (SWD and Kings respectively on camp) he felt his guys only fired at around 60% and needed the “flush out,” “our preparation has been load intensive and the guys have put in hours and hours preparing for this campaign, we have concentrated hard on the strength and conditioning aspect of the game in our very own HPC and our guys are physically ready.” He continued. The new rules in the competition will definitely make it interesting and intuitive coaching and play will be important. “Our students are a smart bunch… sometimes too smart, but the new rules suit us, the boys think on their feet and are able to respond and adapt very well to situations, being intelligent and challenging guys, they learn quickly and are a pleasure to coach. It was extremely pleasing to see the new guys slotting in so easily and the boys playing with freedom and very nice for the new coaching staff to start off with a win.” Said Musikanth.

His focus now shifts to the IKEY training camp and their next fixture against Anton Leonards SWD