New coach warns of pain ahead in bid for cup

NEW EP Kings’ head coach Brent Janse van Rensburg has given his team an early warning that any success in the Currie Cup Premier Division will come at a personal price.

Janse van Rensburg, who was surprisingly promoted from defence to head coach last week, has been charged with getting the struggling side back on the winning track.

Last year, the Kings could win only one of the 10 matches they played in the Currie Cup, but Janse van Rensburg feels they can do better this season.

And he warned: “The players must understand, though, that it will come at a price where they will need to sacrifice themselves, their wellbeing, and their wishes, wants and desires.

“It require a lot of hard work and they are aware of that. It will require us to be the best versions of ourselves that we can be every single day.

“We can’t lose days or lose time and we have to bank every session, every week.

“But it is certainly a process, as we all know. When you are evolving things and scrubbing up structures and developing things, this does not happen overnight.”

Janse van Rensburg was in charge on the training field yesterday as the Kings prepared for their opening friendly against the Sharks in Nelson Mandela Bay on July 11.

“I would like to think this group of players have the spirit within them to put up a good fight in this year’s Currie Cup. I certainly do.

“From a conditioning point of view, I think we will be better than last year.

“I also think from a culture and team energy perspective we would have grown.

“The key now is to ensure we are very efficient with what we are doing on the field.

“The players are going to have to be a lot more accurate than last year’s Currie Cup. Discipline will need to be bet- ter.” Janse van Rensburg says for this Currie Cup campaign the Kings will play the rugby they need to play to be as effective as possible.

“I think ultimately you would want to play a game that is balanced and a game that sort of complements total rugby. I won’t say to you I am all of one. I will not say I am all out attack, or all out kicking or all out conservative.

“You have can have philosophy in your mind that you want to play. But it would be naive to think you can just take that philosophy and throw it into an environment and ex- pect it to work off the bat.

“For this Currie Cup campaign my approach will be to play effective rugby.

“Whatever that rugby needs to be for us as a team to be effective for the season we find ourselves in as a squad and to complement the personnel we have available currently to do the job. Once they have been together for a period and understand the structure and systems one can evolve our plan.”

Janse van Rensburg says it is vital that there is a sound culture at the Kings that is high- performance geared.

“I will start with the players wanting to play for me and this management team and what we stand for as human beings and as people.

“If we can get this right and the value statement is really strong and we have a healthy culture of what we stand for, then the game plans and the strategy will come.”

After his appointment last week, Janse van Rensburg said he spoke to the management team first after taking over the top job.

“I think the players have got a good sense of who I am and what I am about during the Vodacom Cup campaign.

“I fortunately developed a relationship with them through the process of the Vodacom Cup.”

‘ I think the players have got a good sense of who I am