The University of Johannesburg lifted their first Varsity 7s title as they saw off the University of the Free State, while Maties finished third and UP-Tuks emerged victorious in the Plate final at the 2017 Varsity 7s tournament in Durban.<\/p>\n
UJ 32-5 Kovsies<\/strong> A great decision by UJ to use their Power Play paid dividends as Martin van Wyk crossed the whitewash and Ricardo Duarttee scored in the second Power Play to hand the University of Johannesburg the Cup with a 32-5 win over the University of the Free State.<\/p>\n Madibaz 29-5 UCT<\/strong> UP-Tuks 10 v UWC 7<\/strong> NWU 19-24 Maties<\/strong> The men from Stellenbosch continued their rampant form\u00a0and\u00a0won 24-19 to finish third overall.<\/p>\n
\nKovsies hit the road running in the Cup final as they made huge inroads into UJ\u2019s territory and they were rewarded with an unconverted try to Armand Pretorius off the back of a strong scrum.\u00a0The teams could not score again in the first half and went into half-time with the score tied up at 5-5. Then\u00a0UJ snuck ahead 10-5 with four minutes left on the clock.<\/p>\n
\nA good start saw Madibaz\u00a0go into the break with a 15-0 lead. The second half was littered with unforced errors by both teams\u00a0as UCT pulled back a try but the Madibaz struck again to win 29-5 and finish 7th place overall.<\/p>\n
\nBoth teams tried to assert early dominance in the early exchanges of the Plate final with the majority of play taking place between the respective 22 metre lines. UP-Tuks weathered the storm in the final minutes of the match to with a 10-7 win over UWC.<\/p>\n
\nNWU made life difficult for the Maties as they constantly denied them any attacking momentum but the Maroon Machine soon settled and struck through James Murphy.\u00a0NWU struck back through Lungelo Gosa with Maties taking a 17-5 lead into half-time.<\/p>\n