FNB Varsity College have been the surprise package in the 2024 FNB Varsity Shield competition, advancing to the semi-finals in their debut season. They take on FNB Madibaz on Friday 19 April. Kick-off is at 12:45.
Captain Abande ‘AB’ Mthembu says his team is not surprised with where they find themselves.
“It’s a testament to what coach (Jeremy) McLaren said at the beginning of the season, we are new to the competition but not (new) to the game of rugby.”
Speaking on their preparations for Madibaz, Mthembu added their first encounter against the same opponents will be of great assistance as they learned lessons from the 19-25 defeat a fortnight ago.
“The approach to our preparations won’t be too different, we’ll apply the things we learnt from the previous game. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel, just a couple of adjustments along with a heightened sense of focus”.
Agreeing with his captain, coach Jeremy MacLaren also sang the praises of Madibaz coach David Manuel.
“I think David Manuel is a really good coach, it was always hard for us to go there. I think we just started badly, we came back to fight hard but credit to Madibaz”.
Having collected an important moral boosting away win in their last round-robin encounter against FNB WSU (37-18), McLaren believes a better start against Madibaz is what they need if they fancy their chances of advancing to the final in what has been a dream debut season.
“I’m just grateful to be part of this season. I think we must start better than we did last time, it’s never easy. But I believe if we can get a better start than last time, we can try to keep them busy and see if we can get ourselves another away win”.
by Mpendulo Letsoalo
