Bishops and Cobras crucial in UCT victory...

UCT 55 - Tukkies 24
In a magnificent display of running rugby, the University of Cape Town (UCT) ran in eight tries to beat their Pretoria rivals, Tukkies, 55-24 in a thrilling FNB Varsity Cup match in front of a packed crowd at Groote Schuur on Monday night. It is the second big upset of Round Two of South Africa's exciting new universities tournament, a venture that has the pulses racing. Read full report here - http://www.uctrfc.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=59&Itemid=1

After what can only be described as a magnificent game of rugby by UCT last night, it was great to see a couple of Cobras representing the UCT 1st team for the second week in a row. Starting at lock was young Mike Ledwidge who got his first cap for the Cobras in our first season against the Barbarians in the semi, and anyone who was there will always remember the huge hits he put in as he took the field. At hooker we had another start in JP Koster, who got his first cap for the Cobras in the same season except in the rain against res side Kopano, and one saw a repeat of his dangerous runs upfield showing extreme power and pace, something that breeds within the Cobras style of play. Off the bench came another young star in Pete Haw, who started the week before, he too has a couple of caps for the Cobras inlcuding the fixture against the Nadoes in Plett, small in size, but his heart makes up for it. Also on the bench was Kyle Wikkins who pulled the white and purple jersey over his head last season at scrumhalf position.

Far Left - scrumalf Stuart Commings in action for Vodacom Western Province u20 at Newlands against the Sharks.

Not only were there 4 capped Cobras representing the young Ikeys side, but there was a total of 8 out of the 22 that were Bishops Boys. These include star wing Marvin Christians '05, Matthew Turner '06 at fullback, the large Mike Ledwidge '05 at lock, Sprinbok under19 lock Martin Muller '06, scrumhalf Stuart Commins '06 hooker JP.Koster '04, powerful 8th man JJ.Gagiano '03, reserve back Pete Haw '05 who started last week and last but not least Wesley Chetty '06 (Post Matric) who was part of the magical Bishops side of 2006 at prop. Thats in total 1 player from 2003 1st team, 1 from the 2004 1st team, 3 from the 2005 first team and another 4 from star side of 2006. And start wing Marvin Christians ran in 4 awesome tries for the home team, it felt like we were watching him on the Piley 2 years ago. Is an extremely impressive representation of Bishops Rugby filtering through up the mountain to the Green Mile. It is even more spectacular that 4 of the UCT First team have represented the Cobras with the other destined to make their debut's in the not so distant future.

Lock Martin Muller signing autrographs for young kids after South Africa u19 game at the IRB U19 RWC.

It was an honour watching these young stars of Bishops just a few years ago who graced us with their awesome talent on the Piley Rees all those many winter Saturday mornings, now the same is being done except up the road on awesome summer evenings on the Green Mile playing for one of the top University sides in the country...this just shows how truly awesome Bishops was and still is, we look forward to watching many more youngster coming through as the u20 trial was also filled with young talent from Diocesan College.

We wish them all the best of luck for the season and hope to see you on the sideline of the Green Mile every Wednesday night and in the changeroom afterwards for a few cold ones...Oh so brave...

A little bit of sevens for the boys...

Touchline reporter - Mr. Mcdonald

For those of you that don’t know, on Saturday the Cobras boys threw out two teams into a pre- season sevens tournament. A big thank you must go to Graeme for pulling out all the stops to help out his beloved Cobras. Nonetheless we managed to scrape together two teams, namely C1 and C2. It was the C1’s who got the ball rolling in the first game against the Villages 4ths, which saw an explosive performance from none other than Callan “Fetish” Artus, who provided the crowd with a savage display of tackling. We smashed those blokes thoroughly. The next game was played by the C2 team, 2 having no reflection on rank but simply represented the second Cobras team to play on the day. Captained by none other than Philip “The Preying mantis” Rogers, also known as Philip “The Snake” Rogers, not to be confused with Dean “the Snake” Smorenburg, he led his team to another pummeling of the 4ths side. Special mention must go to another import, Monty Taljaard who had a fantastic performance at scrummy. It was clear that his UCT training combined with his losing a few pounds in the off season gave him a great advantage in the sevens version of the game.

The Shebeen Boys were the next fixture for the C1’s who pulled out another epic performance with workhorse Zandy Macdonald and Oliver Braithwaite having exceptional games. The big match up of the day was to be the C2’s game against the Nadoes, bru. Utilizing our numbers on the bench we decided to play a mixed side against the Nadoes. They looked in good form in their earlier matches and the stage was set for a very intriguing affair. By half time we had chalked up a two try lead. If my memory serves me correctly the play of the day came from Mont Taljaard. Having just received a kick off from the Nadoes with the score at three to two, the ball soared over the head of Z Macdonald to bounce just in front of the Mont. He collected calmly and proceeded to fend Nadoes players in a manner that can only be likened to the way in which Ian Armstrong is pushed around Tiger Tiger by his would- be victims. Unfortunately Mont just didn’t quite have enough gas and was dragged down just meters short of the touch line. With the score at four all the game was poised on a knife edge and the two teams were only separated by pure physical exhaustion and what can only be described as dubious refereeing. Brendan “I’m gooing Lee Tacon” Raubenheimer tried valiantly to chase down a little chip to tie the game but the eventual outcome was Nadoes 25, Cobras 20. A hard pill to swallow.

The next game saw the C1’s take on the Nadoes, pretty much the same outfit went back out barely minutes after their last crushing defeat. Fatigue was clearly showing in our players. Nonetheless they played in true Cobras fashion and battled to the death. Oli B showed incredible grit and tenacity, fighting to the last. It was not to be, however, with Fetish throwing an unlucky interception pass that just finished us off. Again the game finished Nadoes 25, Cobras 20. The final game of the afternoon saw the C2’s take on the Shebeen Boys. It was a tired start by the Cobras but eventually it was Deano S, with a little hop skip and a jump over Mont, who closed out the game and ensured that both Cobra teams suffered one loss. Dillon “Me and Blake G are now closely acquainted” Mcevoy had a special game at God knows what position adding two tries to his name. He ended the day with two tries.

The players of the day - Mont and Olly

There was meant to be a final game between the C1 and C2 but the okes were just too buggered. All in all the day was deemed a great success, with Oli taking home C1 player of the day and Mont taking home C2 player of the day. Oli definitely racked up most minutes on the pitch, although he insisted on playing a full back type job on defense. Lots of credit to him though. Again I must thank everyone involved and who came down, Warren especially for organizing it. And of course, again, Graeme, what a trooper.

The year ahead...

Welcome back to all the Cobras after what has been one seriously long holiday. Hope you pushed it in true Cobras style one way or another, whether it was at Ox-braai or up the coast with the Family. I certainly know Gimli Steen did, as it was made obvious that he was having a good time at Ox-braai by running around screeming "I pull tall chicks" in the early hours of the morning, we don't think he even knew what he was doing. This man has been bouncing between ladies over the summer season, which has been dubbed "The Summer of Love" by many, including Raubs who was last seen on the bowling greens of WPCC with a blonde las, who knows? However the same can't be said about Dillon X, who is now officially Dillon Ex, thank god.

As the year has started, so has the Cobras Bowls team. After two outings to the Greens, the Cobras have out done themselves with 2 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss. This is a remarkable improvement on last years season. With another two thursday sessions to go, the Cobras look set to hopefully get their hands on some sort of award, especially with the return of strike bowler Graeme Steen from China. Its an awesome vibe, come on down to WPCC on Ave. De Mist on Thursday evenings 6pm, put your golf shirt/jersey or whatever on and come have a few beers, its an awesome prematch for tiger.

This year looks set to be an awesome one, as we are still fresh out of school and only our 3rd year of internal league rugby, one maybe feels 3rd time lucky? The new laws in the league can only play into our hands with 75% of the team have to be registered UCT students and the rest must be members of the UCTRFC and under the age of 25. We obviously will not encounter any selection issues over this as I our whole side is basically UCT students and under the age of about 22, so with this is mind it is going to be beneficial to us, as nothing will have to change in our setup.

Touch has been going strong with record numbers of guys coming down every Sunday, its awesome to see how amped guys are so early in the season, we want to see who the commited guys are so get down to touch EVERY SUNDAY @ BISHOPS 5 O'CLOCK SHARP! The league is just under two months away so we have to start getting those fitness levels up.

A few notices for the year to keep in mind:

- Seven's Tournament this (Saturday 23rd of Feb) @ Villagers RFC. Meet at 1 o'clock on the B-field, bring new and old Cobras jerseys, we need at least 20 guys there so please come down, all welcome. TOUCH ON SUNDAY IS STILL ON AT BISHOPS.

- Pre-season friendlies, possibly against Shebeen Boys and Wilgenhof (Stellenbosch) 1st or 2nd team in Stellies on a Wed night, TBC.

- Nadoes/Cobras tour to Plett June/July holidays. Weekend of Knysna Marathon with huge jol at Crabs Creek.

- End of season Cobras Formal dinner, we all know going by the last one that this is an event not to be missed.

- Finally to win the league...

This is basically what is on the Cobras Calendar for 2008, so keep those in mind and we'll keep you up to date with these events. Please commit yourself to events and don't make us chase you around, cos if you do we dont need you, seriously.

If you have not told me that you want a Cobras Rugby jacket yet, you better do so in the next 35 or so hours otherwise its your loss, we have got them at a big discount, but ill keep you posted on costs.

So thats it for now, please keep checking this site as not everyone is on Facebook, and if you havent joined the Purple Cobras RFC group on facebook please do so immediately. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2232462638

So Saturday it is, meet at Villagers no later than 13:00 please, let me know if you have any problems. 0839502053.

To the year that is 2008, let's bring it home...

Oh so brave.