There were differing fortunes for the two Western Cape teams in Round Four of the 2014 FNB Varsity Cup presented by Steinhoff International.

Whilst FNB UP-Tuks and FNB NWU-Pukke put some daylight between themselves and the chasing pack with good away wins, FNB UCT went down in Cape Town and the FNB Maties managed a narrow win.

UP-Tuks, the two-times defending champions, continued their unbeaten run this season with a tough 26-16 victory over the Ikeys in extremely windy conditions on the Green Mile in Cape Town.

Tukkies secured what could prove to be a crucial bonus point in the final stages of their win in Cape Town to hold a one-point lead on the standings over NWU-Pukke who scored seven tries in their demolition of the Madibaz.

It was the Ikeys’ second defeat at home this season, to go with away wins against Maties and the Madibaz in the last two weeks, and leaves them in fifth spot on the standings, just ahead of NMMU on points’ difference.

The Maties were forced to come from behind to earn a hard-fought 18-15 win against Wits who earned their first log points of the season despite narrowly missing out on their first-ever Varsity Cup win.

Wits were leading heading into the final half-hour, but conceded two tries when down to 14 men as Maties snuck home to move up to fourth place on the standings – Wits nearly stealing a dramatic draw through an unconverted try on full-time.

In Bloemfontein, meanwhile, the UFS-Shimlas scored five tries in the first half to take the game away from UJ before cruising to a comfortable 52-16 victory which saw them leap up to third place on the log, four points behind NWU-Pukke.

UJ simply had no response for the fluid Free State side, and find themselves down in seventh position with just one win from their four matches this season.

In the Varsity Shield, meanwhile, FNB Fort Hare flyhalf Oliver Zono scored minutes from time to clinch a dramatic 31-29 victory over defending champions FNB CUT in Bloemfontein.

It was the Ixias’ first defeat in the competition since 2012 and sees Fort Hare go from last place up to third position, four points adrift of the FNB UKZN Impi who beat the FNB TUT Vikings 32-8 in Pietermaritzburg.

In the FNB Varsity Young Guns competition, UFS got their campaign up and running with a resounding 122-0 victory over Wits in Bloemfontein, whilst UJ made it two wins from two games with a 40-29 win against Ikeys in Cape Town.

In Steinhoff Koshuisrugby Championship action, Steinhoff Oppidani from NMMU

went down 31-0 at home to a well-drilled Steinhoff Patria outfit from NWU-Pukke and Steinhoff Heimat from UFS got their campaign off to a convincing start with a 55-16 victory over Steinhoff Humanities from Wits in Bloemfontein.