{"id":3740,"date":"2017-02-02T17:04:41","date_gmt":"2017-02-02T15:04:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/?p=3740"},"modified":"2017-02-02T17:07:51","modified_gmt":"2017-02-02T15:07:51","slug":"big-challenge-looms-for-madibaz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/rugby\/big-challenge-looms-for-madibaz\/","title":{"rendered":"Big challenge looms for Madibaz against Pukke in Varsity Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Happy with a winning start against UCT, FNB NMMU-Madibaz coach David Maidza knows that a critical test lies ahead when his team tackle NWU-Pukke in the FNB Varsity Cup in Potchefstroom on Monday.<\/p>\n

The Madibaz hit their straps after a strategy break against the Cape Town outfit to win 36-8 and they will be looking to maintain that momentum in the next round.<\/p>\n

Defending champions Pukke also started on the right footing, although they were pushed all the way by the University of Johannesburg before securing a 16-12 win.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
FNB NMMU-Madibaz flyhalf Simon Bolze goes on a run in their opening Varsity Cup match against UCT in Cape Town on Monday. Photo: Saspa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Maidza said he knew the experienced Pukke squad would be full of confidence in their ability to produce a winning result.<\/p>\n

“We have to be smart about how we approach them as we know they are a side who do not rely only on one way of playing,” the Madibaz mentor said.<\/p>\n

“This will be a good measure for us to see where we are and where we are going in the Varsity Cup competition.”<\/p>\n

He added that it was important to play to their strengths against the highly rated Pukke team.<\/p>\n

“We have to focus on where we will be strong against Pukke and make sure that we stick to our game plan with minimum errors.”<\/p>\n

Maidza said they wanted to build on the opening win against Ikeys, a match where they improved as the contest progressed.<\/p>\n

“It was good for us to kick off in the manner we did against UCT,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I felt we had a slow start to the game where we were evolving with the game, instead of us stamping our authority on it.<\/p>\n

“After the strategy break we began to take control of the game.”<\/p>\n

Maidza put their victory down to a team effort as they combined well to score five tries to one, earning a bonus point to put them at the top of the log.<\/p>\n

Skipper Kevin Kaba, who scored a try, led from the front to be named the Player That Rocks, while his deputy and centre Andile Jho crossed for two tries.<\/p>\n

Further tries came from wing Jixie Molapo and scrumhalf Lovu Claassen, while flyhalf Simon Bolze kicked three conversions and a penalty.<\/p>\n

“This was certainly a solid squad effort and all the players put their best feet forward.<\/p>\n

“At this early stage of the season there are a number of aspects to work on.<\/p>\n

“But it is pleasing to see that these young men are willing to keep working to improve, not only themselves, but the team as a whole.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy with a winning start against UCT, FNB NMMU-Madibaz coach David Maidza knows that a critical test lies ahead when his team tackle NWU-Pukke in the FNB Varsity Cup in Potchefstroom on Monday. The Madibaz hit their straps after a strategy break against the Cape Town outfit to win 36-8 and they will be looking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":58746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2248,2194,2195,2196,2249,2235,2250,1976,1770,2246,2245,1793,2247,305,2243,2073,1733,1977],"class_list":["post-3740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-andile-jho","tag-david-maidza","tag-fnb-nmmu-madibaz","tag-fnb-varsity-cup","tag-jixie-molapo","tag-kevin-kaba","tag-lovu-claassen","tag-madibaz-rugby","tag-nmmu","tag-nwu","tag-nwu-pukke","tag-pe-news","tag-pukke","tag-rugby-news","tag-simon-bolze","tag-uct","tag-university-of-johannesburg","tag-varsity-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3740\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}