{"id":3864,"date":"2017-03-03T20:57:07","date_gmt":"2017-03-03T18:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/?p=3864"},"modified":"2017-03-03T20:57:07","modified_gmt":"2017-03-03T18:57:07","slug":"young-guns-coach-aims-to-shore-up-defence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/rugby\/young-guns-coach-aims-to-shore-up-defence\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Guns coach aims to shore up defence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coach Zane Bosch wants to see an improved defence from the FNB NMMU-Madibaz Young Guns in their crucial Varsity Cup rugby encounter against UCT on the NMMU B field on Monday.<\/p>\n

With only one match under their belts – an opening loss to Stellenbosch – the Madibaz have had precious little game time this season, but Bosch said it had given them an opportunity to work on their skills.<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately, we got off to a bit of a late start and only had three weeks of preparation before the Maties game,” said the Madibaz coach.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
FNB Madibaz lock Janse Roux goes up for a ball in the Varsity Cup match against UP-Tuks. Roux has been included in the Young Guns team for Monday’s clash with UCT on the NMMU B field. Photo: Saspa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He pointed out that Stellenbosch were a powerful unit with several SA Schools players in their ranks and that they had taken some positives from the match.<\/p>\n

“We did well in our lineouts and scrums and were good with the ball in hand, but our defence was lacking.<\/p>\n

“However, that was our first game and we have put in a lot of work in that department. We have also been working hard on our skills over the past three weeks.”<\/p>\n

Following the 79-20 defeat, he said victory would be crucial against Ikeys on Monday as the three pool winners, plus the best-placed second team from the pools, would qualify for the semifinals.<\/p>\n

“We have to try to beat UCT and target a bonus point as well. They won the U21 league in Cape Town last year, so it won’t be easy.”<\/p>\n

He explained that Madibaz had been grouped in a pool with Maties and Ikeys, playing each team in home and away matches.<\/p>\n

“After Monday’s game we travel to Cape Town for the return match against UCT and then finish off against Maties at home two weeks later.”<\/p>\n

Ikeys have lost both their matches to Maties, who are sure to qualify for the semifinals as the pool winners.<\/p>\n

Bosch said a few players released from the senior Varsity Cup squad would bolster their team for the Ikeys encounter.<\/p>\n

“We also have players like Michael Botha, a real talent from Selborne College, who can make a big impact. He can play fullback or flyhalf, while lock Ruben le Roux and prop Sandi Msengana will be other key players.”<\/p>\n

He said they had a young team in that there were 12 first-year students in their squad.<\/p>\n

“Most of the U20 players are in their second year, so we lack a bit of experience.<\/p>\n

“But, basically, we will just be focusing on a good performance on Monday and only then look ahead to the rest of our matches.”<\/p>\n

The match will get under way at 2.15pm and will be followed by the Koshuis game between NMMU’s Steinhoff Harlequins and UJ’s Chiros at 4.15pm.<\/p>\n

After a bye this week, the Madibaz senior side will resume their campaign in the Varsity Cup when they meet University of Johannesburg in Johannesburg on Monday. Kick-off is at 6.30pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coach Zane Bosch wants to see an improved defence from the FNB NMMU-Madibaz Young Guns in their crucial Varsity Cup rugby encounter against UCT on the NMMU B field on Monday. With only one match under their belts – an opening loss to Stellenbosch – the Madibaz have had precious little game time this season, […]<\/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":[2324,1976,1770,1793,305,2073,1977,2277,2323],"class_list":["post-3864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-koshuis-rugby","tag-madibaz-rugby","tag-nmmu","tag-pe-news","tag-rugby-news","tag-uct","tag-varsity-cup","tag-varsity-cup-rugby","tag-young-guns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3864","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=3864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3864\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}