Upbeat Fana keeps the faith
FNB Fort Hare head coach Elliot Fana believes his side has what it takes to win away from home - but only if they improve on Monday's performance against Wits.
Fort Hare went down 14-23 in the historic opening game of the all-new Varsity Shield in Alice on Monday, but Fana believes that the same group of players can regroup and beat the Central University of Technology (CUT) in Bloemfontein on Thursday.
After announcing his team for the CUT clash, the Fort Hare boss told varsitycup.co.za: "I am sticking with the same group of 23 players because I believe that they are the best players available to me.
"I have to believe in our systems, I am confident that we are good enough to win games away from home but I realise that it is never easy," he added.
In terms of the opposition awaiting his charges in Bloemfontein, Fana said: "I don't know much about CUT, in these early stages of the competition I don't concentrate on what other teams are doing, I am worried about the basics of rugby and whether we can apply those to our advantage.
"One thing that we are aware of is that CUT are not inviting us for a braai in Bloem," he quipped.
Fana pulled no punches in the analysis of his team's performance against Wits on Monday evening, saying: "We made a lot of mistakes and we have only ourselves to blame. We did quite a number of things right, but when it came to finishing off we were very poor.
"Also, when Wits asked us a lot of physical questions we had no answers, I have to be honest," he admitted.
A major stumbling block for the Fort Hare team was the amount of time their players spent in the sin bin, something which Fana was not happy about at all.
"Our discipline on the day was not good enough, rugby was never designed to be played by 14 people, but - yet - we played for 20 minutes with 14 guys. So that shows that we have to make a step up when it comes to our discipline.
"The passion is definitely there, but we need to channel that passion positively and play within the rules of rugby," he said.
The Eastern Cape outfit enjoyed overwhelming support from thousands of supporters in Alice, and Fana is desperate to reward their loyal fans with some winning rugby.
He said: "It was disappointing for us to let those supporters down. This is a wonderful opportunity, but opportunities come with responsibility.
"So I guess to a certain extent we have let our community down and it is something that we have to rectify, so we must come up with answers very quickly.
"People want to see a winning side and a side that plays good rugby, but it comes down to positive results and positive results are when the scoreboard favours you, so we have to get our act together and produce," he added.
By Michael de Vries
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