Welcome back…….Monday Night Lights

Coach-Taru reviews the Ikeys build up to the 2009 Varsity Cup Campaign

2009………Is it the going to be the year of the Ikeys?

Welcome back mates. Here’s the first post of the 2009 Varsity rugby articles. Hope you do have a magnificent 2009 rugby season, with the popular Monday-night-lights and Super 14 back in the mix. As my fellow rugby-craze mate N.K would say, “Bring on those lights...All the Way… with the Ikey Stripes”.

After a successful 2008 Varsity Cup Tournament campaign that was blemished by a last-minute try in the final against the Maties, the UCT Ikey Tigers have vouched to put past that rather emotional defeat and concentrate on the 2009 campaign.
Bolstered by the availability of world class technical team that any rugby team in the world would die for (John Dobson, Robbie Fleck, Bob Skinstad, Selborne Boome, scrumming expert Paul Day and world cup winning coach, Jake White, the Ikeys look set to continue, if not better their previous campaign. Sheryl Calder, a renowned world pioneer in specialist in vision fitness who worked with the 2003 England Rugby World Cup winning side has also been involved with the Ikeys team during their preseason training. An interview with Ikeys skipper (now a Test player for the US Eagles), JJ Gargiano revealed just how well prepared the boys are this year. So as far as their preparations for the 2009 season are concerned, “We are more prepared than we were last year, thanks to our awesome technical and management team and the Sports Science Institute for making their pre-season training much easier. What is nice about such a management team is that they share their wealth of knowledge and learn from each other at the same time, even outside rugby…hence the mutual understanding of TEAM’S interests”, echoes the talented and charismatic Ikeys Captain Courageous.

The departure and loss of most senior players from last year’s team of the year has not affected the team’s spirit and they have no ill feelings about it. For instance, when asked about the loss of former Ikeys hooker, JP Koster to Maties, the skipper is quick to respond, “Rugby has become a professional sport and a business, so players are bound to move to greener pastures and so we are still cool about it”. Well, it seems the Ikeys were not so cool about it as witnessed in their opener against the Maties on the 2nd of February (Ikeys narrowly lost 10-12), with JP Koster being at the receiving end of some mean tackles.

Losing their first game of the 2009 tournament has not affected the Ikeys camp at all, considering also that they lost their first match last season and went on to win the remaining matches in the group stages. Coach Dobbo, who said he was "pleased" with the team's performance against Maties, admitted though that 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.
The Ikeys have a relatively new look side, with only a few senior players in the team, notably skipper JJ Gargiano, Enoch Panya, Dylan Rogers (D-guy), Mat Rosslee just to mention a few, otherwise the rest of the crop is from the 2008 U20 side. The most promising players to watch out for this season include JP Roberts (scrum-half), hard-hitting flank Kuselo Moyake, Donovan Armand (lock) and the funniest bloke in the side according to JJ, Dayne Jans (hooker). New recruits, wing Dane Johnson, fullback Therlow Pietersen and the evergreen former Maties fullback/centre (also part of the 2009 Vodacom Stormers extended squad), Tiger Bax have also augmented the Ikeys, known for their awe-inspiring running brand of rugby. Pietersen and Bax inspired the Ikeys in their recent 39-21 win over TUT with some scintillating tries. Tiger Bax was well deservedly rewarded with a Man of the Match R1000 cheque for his outstanding performance at outside centre were he tore the resilient TUT defence on several occasions.

With transformation being one of the main focuses of this tournament, the Ikeys Tigers seem not to be struggling at all according to Ikeys skipper, JJ Gargianno, “I think don’t have a problems with transformation at UCT, we have more players of colour than other leading varsity cup sides”…”I can’t call it transformation because these players of colour are not there to add numbers, but because they are standouts in their knowledge of the game”, says JJ. At the moment the side has about 7-8 players of colour in the 27man squad…and there is always at least 3 players of colour in every running on team and at any point on the field. It is good to see guys like Sinako “Snakes” and Sam being included in the extended squad as they had a good 2008 rugby season in the junior teams.

On a different note, the Ikeys flag seems to be flying higher in other rugby circles internationally, with three players in the history making Bok 7s team, Kyle Brown, Paul Delport and the recently appointed Bok 7s Captain, Mpho “Impi ‘ Mbiyozo (congrats Impi). Other former varsity cup players plying their trade elsewhere include Mat Turner (Bristol and England 7s sides) and mercurial scrumhalf, Danie van der Merwe (contracted to Boland). Too bad the services of last year’s forward of the tournament, the burly but artistic front ranker, Herbie Mayosi will be missed. Him and centre David Edgar are not eligible to participate in the tournament due to age restrictions.