It's a mental game for Divvie
A change in the mental approach to the game is at the forefront of changes UWC's head coach Peter de Villiers needs to make to his squad if they are to have a successful Varsity Shield campaign.
Contributing to the Bellville-based students having to make this mental shift is a vast intake of first-year students who make up the bulk of the squad and have brought a new lease of life into the UWC environment.
"Our squad is very different and the balance is good," the former Springbok coach, De Villiers, told varsitycup.co.za.
"The spirit is high and the fact that they believe in each other is our biggest asset. We have a greater spirit because they live for each other and the individual preferences have been put aside. We are a unit at the moment.
"We have already made a lot of changes. Psychologically we have gotten them onto another level which is the most important part. It's something that needed to change. They came here with the ideas of what their parents, teachers and all their previous coaches instilled in them, so we had to try to get them to change that mindset and buy into our way of thinking. I think we have gotten there," he told the Varsity Cup website.
UWC started the 2014 Shield tournament like a house on fire, holding the top position on 
the log for the opening two weeks, before a slump in performance curtailed their promotion ambitions. Mixed results and fortunes in the middle stage of the competition saw them finish second-last on the log.
Preparations this year has been tough for De Villiers as he had to get his players out of their holiday mood and get them to realise their true potential.
"Preparations are tough because the guys are still in a holiday mood. It's hard to get them where you want them to be and they don't realise where they can be. We need to train hard in order for them to realise their potential and show them where they can be," he added.
De Villiers stated the squad's ambition will be to go through the Varsity Shield unbeaten, despite him admitting results are something you don't have control of.
"We want the team to develop as a group so that they are able to bring out the best in each of them. When everyone is at their best, it will contribute to the success of the team as a whole.
"We don't have control over the result of the matches but we can control of the way we play and approach each game. Our ambition is to not lose a game this year and we will do everything we can to achieve that but like I said, the result is something we cant control.
"We are definitely in a rebuilding phase, but we don't have a set time frame of when the phase will be over. The players have to ready from the first game. We can't give ourselves time to rebuild because we don't have the time," he stated.
Source: varsitycup.co.za
