Ikeys 'tweaked' for TUT showdown
University of Cape Town coach John Dobson has “tweaked” his team for their Round Two showdown with the Tswane University of Technology in the FNB Varsity Cup, presented by Steinhoff International, in Pretoria on Monday.
The team shows five changes, including a couple of positional switches, from that which narrowly lost (10-12) to Stellenbosch in the opening week.
Therlow Pietersen comes in at fullback in place of Tiger Bax, who moves to outside centre and Pieter Engelbrecht also moving a position in to No.12. Sean van Tonder drops down to the replacement bench.
At scrumhalf Kyle Wickens comes in for the injured Stu Commins.
The only change up front is of a rotational nature, with Western Province lock Michael Passaportis taking the place of promising Don Armand.
Dobson, who said he was “pleased” with the team’s performance against Stellenbosch, admitted the final result remains a sore point.
“I felt we had done enough to win, and deserved to, but it is a new team and we needed to know where we were in terms of the level of rugby that is required in the Varsity Cup,” Dobson told www.varsitycup.co.za.
He added that this tournament is not about how you start, but how we finished – in reference to the inaugural season last year, when they also lost their opening match and still ended up topping the table.
“There is lots to work on,” the UCT coach said.
“We probably got involved in a little bit of a dog fight with Maties, so we have tweaked our side a bit so that hopefully the UCT brand can come through a bit stronger,” Dobson added.
UCT: 15 Therlow Pietersen, 14 Dane Johnson, 13 Tiger Bax, 12 Pieter Engelbrecht, 11 Marvin Christians, 10 Matthew Rosslee, 9 Kyle Wickins, 8 Johnathan Gagiano (captain), 7 Enoch Panya, 6 Nick Fenton, 5 Michael Passaportis, 4 Martin Muller, 3 Shane Meier, 2 Dayne Jans, 1 Dylan Rogers.
Replacements: 16 Mark Goosen, 17 Ashley Wells, 18 Donovan Armand, 19 Michael Morris, 20 Jean-Paul Robert, 21 Sean van Tonder, 22 Marcello Sampson.
Date: Monday, February 9
Venue: TUT Stadium, Pretoria
Kick-off: 16.45
