UJ riding a wave of success
The Johannesburg students showed excellent determination and plenty of character to clinch the victory against a Pukke side who thumped UP-Tuks in Pretoria a week earlier, despite being reduced to 13-men at one stage.
"Pukke are a quality side and proved what they can do with turnover ball but in saying that, we passed quite a big challenge. That field is really intimidating and it seemed as though they brought out the whole campus to the game. Under a high pressure situation, I thought the guys stayed calm at the important stages of the match.
"We conceded early tries in both halves and were forced to fight back from those points in the match. The character of the team really showed when we were down to 13, to not allow them to score more than one try. Overall, I'm really happy for the guys to be rewarded for the hard work they put in away from home.
"We failed to start the second half well but I thought our tactical kicking improved as the game went on and we were able to keep them quite deep in their half. They have good counter-attacking ability and I feel that we never gave them the chance to execute that inside our half. To me, that is what won it for us," Janse van Rensburg told rugby365.com.
UJ's discipline would seem like an area of concern but Janse van Rensburg believes it's not high on his priority list as it is the first time they have transgressed. However, he does feel they have plenty of things to work on as the tournament progresses.
"I'm not concerned about discipline at this moment because we never conceded any yellow cards against the Madibaz [in Round One] and our penalty count hasn't gone into double figures. Having said that, you can't play with 13 men on the park and expect to win every match. We got the win this time but it won't happen every time.
"I may be mistaken but it's the first time in a long while that we have conceded four tries in a match, and we pride ourselves on our defence. But with 13-men on the park, you will more than likely concede tries in that period.
"For us, we need to understand where it is we want to play on the field and being smarter tactically. We will work on the same things every week, like our set phases and defence and make sure we consistently get them spot-on," he added.
By Tauriq Ebrahim
