{"id":3927,"date":"2017-03-17T09:04:26","date_gmt":"2017-03-17T07:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/?p=3927"},"modified":"2017-03-17T09:04:26","modified_gmt":"2017-03-17T07:04:26","slug":"uj-wits-head-for-derby-showdown-varsity-cup-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/rugby\/uj-wits-head-for-derby-showdown-varsity-cup-rugby\/","title":{"rendered":"UJ, Wits head for derby showdown – Varsity Cup rugby"},"content":{"rendered":"

A major Varsity Cup rugby derby is looming in Gauteng on Monday when in-form teams University of Johannesburg and Wits square up in a televised clash at the UJ Stadium.<\/p>\n

The home side are in the better position on the log, having risen to third place following four wins in a row, while Wits, with three wins and three defeats, are in sixth place after the seventh round of the competition.<\/p>\n

UJ coach Werner Janse van Rensburg is preparing his troops for a serious scrap, noting that the last time they played Wits in the Varsity Cup resulted in a narrow win in 2014.<\/p>\n

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University of Johannesburg’s Jo-Hanco de Villiers powers over for a try against UCT in their Varsity Cup rugby match in Cape Town on Monday. Photo: Saspa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Firstly, we are grateful just to be in our current position and we are obviously excited to be involved in a big derby on Monday,” he said.<\/p>\n

“They are a team at the peak of their powers with a great attitude and intent. They will be solid in all aspects of the game, which will force us to step up a further five per cent from our previous performances.”<\/p>\n

The UJ coach said he would be urging his players not to get ahead of themselves, knowing that anything can happen in this competition.<\/p>\n

“We have to stay true to what we do because this is a new week and history counts for nothing.<\/p>\n

“We have to be at our best and, as a unit, have the willingness to go the extra mile.”<\/p>\n

Janse van Rensburg said playing at home would not necessarily give them any major advantage because the nature of the Varsity Cup meant teams had to learn to perform under a variety of conditions.<\/p>\n

After suffering two losses early in the season, UJ maintained the momentum they had built up from three successive wins with a resounding 40-12 win over UCT in Cape Town this week.<\/p>\n

It was a result which Janse van Rensburg described as “very enjoyable” after the team executed their game plan to near perfection.<\/p>\n

“We had a plan of how to approach the extreme wind conditions at UCT which we gradually started to introduce about three weeks ago,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We were grateful that most of it worked effectively on the day and the players must be credited for their positive attitude.<\/p>\n

“Handling the circumstances on the day and the willingness to do more for each other were big plusses for us,” said Janse van Rensburg.<\/p>\n

“The challenge was to handle the lineouts in the wind and the guys stayed calm during this high pressure scenario.”<\/p>\n

He said it was encouraging to win their second game away from home, having also beaten Central University of Technology (CUT) in Bloemfontein.<\/p>\n

He added it was too early to start talking about qualifying for the play-offs.<\/p>\n

“We still need to get another win to qualify and our only focus at this stage is on trying to get a third win in a row at home this year. The rest will look after itself.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A major Varsity Cup rugby derby is looming in Gauteng on Monday when in-form teams University of Johannesburg and Wits square up in a televised clash at the UJ Stadium. The home side are in the better position on the log, having risen to third place following four wins in a row, while Wits, with […]<\/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":[295,1740,305,2230,1733,1977,2293,1848],"class_list":["post-3927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-johannesburg","tag-johannesburg-news","tag-rugby-news","tag-uj-rugby","tag-university-of-johannesburg","tag-varsity-cup","tag-werner-janse-van-rensburg","tag-wits"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3927","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=3927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3927\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}