Victorious Roux praises Maties defence
Stellenbosch head coach Chean Roux praised his team’s defence after their 38-14 Varsity Cup semifinal triumph over FNB Tuks in Stellenbosch on Monday evening.
The FNB Maties scored six tries to one as they advanced to their second successive FNB Varsity Cup presented by Steinhoff International Final, but – instead of praising his side’s attack – Roux pointed to their defence on the night as the key factor in their triumph.
“I said it last week,” Roux told varsitycup.co.za, “defence was always going to be the key (against Tuks). Also, I thought we got good forward momentum and that led to some pretty good tries being scored.”
Forever the perfectionist, Roux even felt his charges left “one or two tries” out there on Monday night, but he added: “There was quite a strong wind out there (last night). So much so, that I felt if we were a try down at half-time that would’ve been a ‘victory’ in itself.”
The key moment for Stellenbosch, however – according to Roux, was outside centre Jéan Stemmet’s try on the stroke of half-time; a score that came from a lineout turnover just before the break.
“We managed to keep possession before the break and we made it count,” said the Maties mentor, whose side went down 23-25 to this selfsame Tuks outfit in league action last week. “Those two tries before half-time were key, but I thought Jéan’s try was particularly crucial.”
Another big moment in the first half was flanker Wesley Wilkins’ score. Whilst it ‘simply’ gave the home side a 14-8 advantage after 23 minutes, it did help bury some demons from last week.
Wilkins, the Maties captain, missed out on a fairly easy try-scoring opportunity against the selfsame Tuks last Monday – he knocked on with an open tryline virtually on the stroke of full-time. But this time he made no mistake when he received the ball on the right-wing from nearly 30 metres out, tip-toed down the touchline and crashed through three defenders en route to the goalline.
“I must be honest,” admitted Roux, “Wesley got the ball in what seemed to be an impossible situation… but he did remarkably well to finish.”
Wilhelm Loock and Stemmet followed suite with tries after their captain’s five-pointer, with Maties taking a 26-14 lead into the break and virtually sewing up the match with 40 minutes remaining on the clock.
“I actually think we kicked a bit too much in the last 20 minutes of the match,” said Roux. “We probably could’ve scored a few more tries in the second half, but at the end of the day I would’ve taken a six-tries-to-one win had you offered it to me in the morning!”
Of course, next up for Maties in the 2009 Varsity Cup Final are FNB Pukke, who caused something of a shock in their semifinal clash against UCT – beating the Men from Cape Town 19-17, after trailling 12-0 at half-time.
The visitors from Potchefstroom fought back strongly in the second half, with the wind at their backs, with UCT guilty of not scoring enough points in the first half when they had the wind assisting them.
“Let me tell you something about that UCT wind,” said Roux, “you have to win the toss and play into it in the first half… It like’s playing a day/night one-day match at Newlands Cricket Ground. If you bat second and have to chase 230, you’ve got no chance! It’s that simple.
“I haven’t seen that game yet, so it’s hard to comment exactly (from that match),” he added. “But I can tell you that our approach will certainly be different having to play against Pukke and not UCT.”
