Wake-up call for CUT
CUT coach Theuns Hanekom is hopeful that Monday's 22-24 loss to the UKZN Impi will serve as a wake-up call for his team ahead of their Varsity Shield Final clash against Wits on Monday, April 4.
FNB CUT lost to FNB UKZN for the second time this season on Monday night, a result which ensured that they would have to travel to Johannesburg to contest the inaugural Shield Final against FNB Wits.
A disappointed Hanekom told varsitycup.co.za: "We didn't use our chances; we played on their goalline for about 25 minutes without scoring.
"In the second half it started raining with a strong wind against us, so it was never going to be easy to come back in those conditions."
The CUT boss believes that complacency was a problem for his team, something they will have to eradicate quickly if they want to take home the silverware on Monday night; not to mention having a shot of playing themselves into the 2012 Varsity Cup.
"The biggest problem, in my opinion, was that we knew three weeks ago that we would be in the final, so the guys were not as sharp as they should have been - we were in a bit of a comfort zone," the CUT coach admitted.
"Now that it's final-time I think that we must focus again because there is everything to play for now."
But CUT have also been boosted ahead of the all-important match by the return of some of their frontline players from SA Under-20 duty.
"Luckily for us about five of our guys will be back next week - all of them in the forward pack.
"Both of our starting props will be back as well as the two guys who went on tour with the SA Under-20 team - Jean Cook and Carl Wegner - and that will be a huge boost for us," revealed Hanekom.
The CUT coach admitted that his team had underestimated the Men from Pietermaritzburg, but he remains hopeful that they would have learnt from the experience.
"It is a huge wake-up call for us, especially losing to UKZN after we thought that they were down and out. If we don't respond to that then we don't belong in the final," he said.
He confirmed that their priority was to win the Varsity Shield before they allowed themselves to start dreaming of promotion/relegation play-offs with the Varsity Cup Wooden Spoonists, the FNB TUT Vikings.
"We must first cross this hurdle, which is a big one for us.
"The promotion/relegation (match) is, for us, a bonus. The aim was to win the Varsity Shield and then we can focus on the rest," he said.
By Michael de Vries
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