Despite a troublesome start to their 2018 campaign, UJ will be giving it their all as they attempt to register their first win against defending champions Tuks on Sunday afternoon at the Coetzenburg Indoor Centre, Stellenbosch.
The University of Johannesburg side has struggled thus far, losing 45-29 and 63-30 to the Madibaz and Maties respectively, cementing their seventh place position on the log. With only three deciding rounds left, the Auckland Park side will stepping into this weekend’s fixtures with the hope of bouncing back with maximum points. Meanwhile, the 2017 season victors have struggled to keep their hand on the trophy as they currently sit at fifth position with eleven points. A win could help boost the University of Pretoria side into the top four and give them a fighting chance of retaining their title.
UJ assistant coach David Maree gives his thoughts on the team’s performance last weekend.
“I think our games against Maties and Madibaz showed a great improvement within the team and I was quite excited to see Jodie Brown be awarded the Player of the Match against the Madibaz. It really showed that there is definitely an improvement within the team and with individual players. I am very excited about our defence as I think they are in a good place right now as we have managed to turn over a number of balls in both games.
“However, our only challenge at this moment is just to get the ball to our shooters and get our shooters to finish strong and score points. We have worked really hard on that and we have been preparing our shooters and re-working our game plan to maximise their potential.”
Maree said Tuks is one of those teams you can never underestimate.
“We are aware that Tuks is a very strong team so they will definitely be a challenge for us. Our strategy going into this game is to break their speed as they play a very fast game, they have got quick hands and have incredibly fast ball movements. I think for the UJ team, we will need to slow the game down and play our own unique and authentic game.
“Our second match against UWC is one of the games we are looking forward to as I do believe that we have an opportunity to take them down this year, especially because we lost against them last year. We have worked extremely hard and we have some strategies in place in order to hopefully walk away as winners.”
UJ will then face UWC on Monday night at the Coetzenburg Indoor Centre. Catch all the action on SuperSport 10 at 17h30.
By Liziwe Mbha
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