Sevens: Pukke remain unbeaten
Pukke picked up five victories from their five matches while bagging three bonus points along the way to end the day on 23 points. In their opening match, they held off Fort Hare 28-12 before overcoming UCT-Ikeys 26-12.
They followed that up with a narrow 19-12 victory over UP-Tuks before they were pushed all the way by defending champions UFS-Kovsies to claim a 12-10 win. In their final match of Day One, the NMMU-Madibaz found themselves on the wrong end of a 36-10 scoreline.
Maties are sitting pretty in second place, having claimed four wins with four bonus points for their haul of 20 points. The Stellenbosch speedsters easily saw off both Cape rivals in their opening matches, beating UCT 24-0 and UWC 26-7.
A 31-0 victory over Walter Sisulu and 45-0 thrashing of Fort Hare left the Maroon Machine in prime position to claim top spot but a final match 0-24 loss to Tuks saw their perfect defence being breached.
UWC currently occupy third place on 16 points, having also claimed four victories from their five matches, however, they failed to pick up any bonus points. An opening 31-12 victory over Tuks sent shock waves through the venue but that high was short lived as they lost to Maties.
They picked themselves up to claim a 24-17 victory over Fort Hare before edging UJ 14-10. They ended their day on a positive note by bagging a 19-7 victory over Kovsies.
Tuks rounds off the top four, after securing 15 points from their five matches. Losses to UWC and Pukke were offset by victories over the Madibaz (31-7), UCT (29-14) and Maties (24-0).
With just 10 points separating the top six sides, there will be plenty to play for on Day Two. The day's action starts at 10.15 local time.
Day One results:
UFS-Kovsies 36-10 Walter Sisulu
UP-Tuks 12-31 UWC
UJ 19-17 NMMU-Madibaz
UCT-Ikeys 0-24 Maties
NWU-Pukke 28-12 Fort Hare
UP-Tuks 31-7 NMMU-Madibaz
UJ 19-10 Walter Sisulu
UFS-Kovsies 22-19 Fort Hare
NWU-Pukke 26-12 UCT-Ikeys
UWC 7-26 Maties
UFS-Kovsies 26-12 UJ
UP-Tuks 12-19 NWU-Pukke
UCT-Ikeys 21-21 NMMU-Madibaz
Maties 31-0 Walter Sisulu
UWC 24-17 Fort Hare
UFS-Kovsies 10-12 NWU-Pukke
UCT-Ikeys 14-29 UP-Tuks
UJ 10-14 UWC
Maties 45-0 Fort Hare
NMMU-Madibaz 26-10 Walter Sisulu
UFS-Kovsies 7-19 UWC
UP-Tuks 240 Maties
UJ 17-12 Fort Hare
UCT-Ikeys 21-17 Walter Sisulu
NWU-Pukke 36-10 NMMU-Madibaz
Logs after Day One:
(under played, won, lost, drawn, points difference, bonus points, total points)
1 NWU-Pukke 5 5 0 0 65 3 23
2 Maties 5 4 1 0 95 4 20
3 UWC 5 4 1 0 23 0 16
4 UP-Tuks 5 3 2 0 39 3 15
5 UFS-Kovsies 5 3 2 0 29 3 15
6 UJ 5 3 2 0 -2 2 13
7 NMMU-Madibaz 5 1 3 1 -36 2 8
8 UCT-Ikeys 5 1 3 1 -51 0 6
9 UFH 5 0 5 0 -76 3 3
10 WSU 5 0 5 0 -86 2 2