Jonsson College Rovers had to dig deep to overcome a spirited Varsity College FC 27-8 in round six of the Fidelity Security Moor Cup yesterday. Their hard fought victory came via tries from Matt Jones, centre Quinton Crocker and a brace from scrumhalf Shannon Rick. Varsity College controlled the game and took a well deserved 8-0 half time lead with a penalty from Armandt Peens and a try from Barend Potgieter. Peens was successful with the conversion as the defending Moor Cup champions look rattled going into the break.

The game remained closely fought and an upset looked likely, until College's winger Pierre Bezuidenhout received a yellow card. Rovers capitalised on that with a try that levelled the game at 8-8. The home team's problems were compounded when they had a man sent off in the 65th minute reducing them to 13 men for a short while. This seemed to have broken their spirit as Rovers took full advantage. They gained momentum in the final quarter to score a further three tries with the bonus point achieved right on the stroke of full time. The five point haul consolidates the defending champions' second place on the log as they move onto 26 points.

Varsity College coach Ian Adendorff was proud of his players and their efforts although they eventually succumbed to the pressure of playing a man short.

"It is obvious at this level that a yellow and a red card is going to severely handicap you," he said.

"Up until that period I thought our youngsters were brilliant in all aspects of the game. We matched them in every department. You must remember this is Rovers - one of the best club rugby teams in the country. We feel like winners today and rest assured we are building on something really good here at this club with the talented youngsters we have."

The Rovers coach Greg Miller was pleased with the manner in which his team had to dig deep to battle back and claim all five points on offer.

"We are also rebuilding with numerous players from last season no longer with us," he said.

"We were very flat-footed in the first half and got caught out. I thought we improved after the break and showed tremendous spirit to get ourselves back into the game. We also had quite a few youngsters in the team and we achieved our aim of five points from the match."

Elsewhere table-toppers Durban Collegians maintained their impressive unbeaten start to the campaign as they downed UKZN Impi 49-10 at KP10. Among their try-scorers were Brendon Groenewald, Sean Robinson, Ferdi Horn, and Gareth Reece-Edwards who grabbed a brace. Their flyhalf, Duncan Campbell, continued his impressive kicking this season with seven successful conversions. The bonus point victory keeps Collegians top of the table on 29 points and sets up an epic encounter next weekend when the top two clash in the league.

Meanwhile at Woodburn, Pmb Collegians scored a morale-boosting 21-17 victory over Amanzimtoti. The Maritzburg outfit put in a superb effort to overcome the heavily-fancied South Coast outfit to register their second win of the season. It sees them move onto eight points.

The game between Nashua Durban Crusaders and Zululand Rhinos was postponed. No rescheduled date has been set aside yet.

Ismail Adam