Mokuena embraces coaching challenge
Mokuena, who took over the reins from Robert du Preez, believes his inexperience as compared to other established coaches like Pote Human of Tuks and Maties' Hawies Fourie, could work in his favour.
"There are two ways to look at the established coaches. The one is that they may be stuck in their ways so for me as a new coach, I can always look down the years and see what their coaching style is and work my plan around that.
"The other way to look at it is that they may be willing to try new things. So it's going to be interesting to see what they decide to do in the first game," Mokuena told rugby365.com.
Coaching certainly has it's challenges and, as a former player, the 34-year-old feels the biggest challenge he has had to deal with thus far, is cutting players who are not up to standard.
"The first thing that was quite difficult for me was telling a player that he is not good enough to be part of the setup. As a player, that is something that you learn to do. It's a tough one but the transition from player to coach was not too bad, it was good fun and I am still enjoying it.
"It's [coaching] definitely a great opportunity to start your coaching career in quite a high profile tournament but this is what you live for and at the end of the day, you just need to know what your strengths are and then carry it over to the team," he added.
Mokuena was hesitant to reveal any secrets around his playing style but admits that because of the new bonus-point system, he has been trying to find the create a balance between a strong pack of forwards and his backline.
"Traditionally, Pukke have always been known for having a strong pack of forwards but I am trying to create a balance between them and the backline to promote running rugby. With the new points system, it's creates an opportunity to see players using their strength and skill to benefit the team.
"The key to any match is that you have to start well and build from there. Once that foundation has been set, then you can start thinking about the extra points for a try. There are certain phases we feel we can initiate a good attack but it depends on where we find ourselves on the field.
"Should we find ourselves behind on the scoreboard, we will have to attempt something out of the ordinary to gain the maximum amount of points. So you may see us doing something you never thought possible but that all depends on the match situation," he stated.
By Tauriq Ebrahim
