UJ coach expects to see a classic Maties team of big forwards and strong backs

UNDER THE new leadership of head coach David Manuel and captain Denzel Hill, the University of Pretoria will kick-off the Varsity Cup with high hopes of being able to successfully defend their title.

Tuks will start their campaign with a tricky encounter against former champions the University of the Free State Shimlas at the Tuks Rugby Stadium this afternoon and Manuel believes they have done enough in the pre-season to handle the pressure and expectation that comes with seeking back-to-back titles.

Even though many of the Varsity Cup coaches have been vocal in their protest against the Power Play, that sees a team choose a player from the opposing team to sit out for three minutes, Manuel is confident that his players will adapt well to the law change.

“We achieved what we wanted to achieve as a squad and I’m happy with how the players performed especially as we got to test ourselves with the new Power Play,” said Manuel.

In the other blockbuster fixture on the opening day of the competition sees a repeat of last year’s semi-final, when the University of Johannesburg play host to the University of Stellenbosch.

“We’ve learned harsh lessons in the last two years. We played well to get into the semis, but on the day we could not quite pull it off,” said UJ coach Werner Janse van Rensburg.

“You learn something all the time in this competition because you play in so many different circumstances. We’ll take it game by game, with our focus now on the Maties fixture. You can expect to see a classic Maties team of big forwards and strong backs, and they will run from everywhere. But we have our own standards and I firmly believe we will be competitive again. This is a competition that has always been open, any team can win on any given day.”

The University of Cape Town will host Wits University at the Green Mile, while Pukke will be looking for a good start when they host the Central University of Technology in Potchefstroom. Fixtures: Tuks v Shimlas, Tuks Stadium, 4.45pm (TV, SS1), UCT v Wits, UCT Rugby Field, 6.30pm, Pukke v CUT, Fanie du Toit Stadium, 6.30pm, UJ v Maties, UJ Stadium, BULLS EXECUTIVE OF RUGBY John Mitchell Bulls cares little about the scoreboard and more about the improvements his team will take out of their warm-up matches ahead of the Super Rugby season.

In their first hit out of the year against the Sharks in Polokwane, the 31-14 defeat was by no means a true reflection of the hard toil they put in at the Peter Mokaba Stadium.

It was messy at times, and riddled with individual and collective errors, but there was a lot of food for thought and plenty of reasons for Mitchell to be optimistic as he watched a rather young and inexperienced Bulls team valiantly battle it out against two different Sharks teams.

Mitchell was impressed with some of the rugby on show, especially against the stature of the opposition, but the former All Blacks coach will be looking for an even better performance when they come up against the Stormers in Wellington on Saturday.

All that Mitchell seeks in the build up to their opening game against the Hurricanes at Loftus is that his side apply themselves better in the face of stiff opposition.

“I don’t really focus on who we are playing, I focus more on ourselves,” Mitchell said after the game in Polokwane.

“It will be trial number two and it is important that we get better and learn from this performance. That is what warmup matches are about, it has nothing to do with the scoreboard, but actually how your game develops and learn to handle pressure. So the best thing is having stress because it is the only way that you learn.”

The Bulls did, though, manage to show some endeavour with ball in hand and could have easily run in more tries than the two that were scored by Manie Libbok and Jaco Visagie had they showed more patience and also executed better in the set-piece.

There will be alarm bells around their poor line-outs, while the Sharks enjoyed a bit of an upper hand in the scrums even though the Bulls held their own most times.

Mitchell will again use the friendly against the Stormers as a barometer for where the rest of his squad are in terms of their pre-season preparations and won’t consider the team’s Springboks and players returning from Japan. YOUNG Proteas fast bowler Lungi Ngidi is soon going to wake up and think the last fortnight has all been a dream.

From an unforgettable Proteas Test debut on his home ground the one week, where Ngidi picked up six second innings wickets to earn the Man-of-theMatch award, to a lucrative IPL contract the next.

Ngidi was snapped up by the Chennai Super Kings yesterday at this year’s IPL auction for 50 lakhs, which equates to just under R1million (R925 266.86). It certainly is a life-changing sum of money for a 21-year-old, who does not have a national contract yet.

Ngidi will join his fellow Proteas teammates Faf du Plessis and Imran Tahir at the Super Kings, who after being the most successful IPL franchise will return to the fold this year after serving a two-year ban for their involvement in a match-fixing scandal. The Super Kings used their “right-to-match” card to secure Proteas skipper Du Plessis’ services for almost R3m ($250 000), while Tahir cost R1.85m.

There was a return to the Mumbai Indians for JP Duminy (R1.85m) after a few years playing for the Delhi Daredevils and Deccan Chargers. Quinton de Kock will now turn out with AB de Villiers for the Royal Challengers Bangalore after moving from the Daredevils for R5.18m.

Kings XI Punjab also utilised their “right-to-match” card to keep David Miller (R5.55m), while the Daredevils did the same with Kagiso Rabada (R7.78m).

This was in contrast to Dale Steyn who went unsold. The 34-year-old Proteas fast bowler is currently out with a heel injury, which would have influenced potential suitors.

It was, though, surprising that Hashim Amla was also left on the market. Amla was the leading run-scorer with 420 runs at an average of 60.00 and strike-rate of 145.83 for the Kings XI last season, but was mysteriously overlooked this year.

Meanwhile, Chris Gayle finally found a team at the third time of asking while seam bowlers Jaydev Unadkat and Andrew Tye earned big on the second and final day of the player auction.

West Indian Gayle went unsold in two rounds with none of the eight franchises looking interested in the swashbuckling left-hander, whose five centuries in the IPL is the most by any batsman. It was in the third round that Kings XI Punjab bought Gayle, IPL’s leading six-hitter, at his base price of 20 million Indian rupees.