The Maties, who are defending Varsity Sevens champions, will be keen to play an exciting brand of rugby when this year’s tournament kicks-off on the weekend of April 25-27.
This was revealed by head coach, Ian Campbell-McGeachy, who said that they will focus more on enjoying themselves than on the pressures of being favourites.
“We are going out there to play a brand of rugby instead of having just one goal to win the tournament,” Campbell-McGeachy told varsitysportssa.com.
“We want to play a brand of Sevens that people will enjoy both on and off the field. That will be our main goal and hopefully the results will then go in our favour. It is not the end of the world for us if we lose because our goal is to have fun and play some quality Sevens.”
The Maties coach, who was also part of the championship winning side in the last edition in Camps Bay in December 2013, said the team at present is up to speed with their preparations after being involved in a number of pre-season tournaments and friendlies against quality opposition.
“It has been going really well at this stage. We haven’t had a problem regarding preparations and we have a lot of support from the university and the players with everybody really keen to participate in the tournament.
“Training is going really well, we had a good off season because of all the tournaments played in the Western Cape. We won two out of the four and came second in another. We also had good preparation against the Blitzbokke, Western Province and UWC, so it’s all going well,” said Campbell-McGeachy.
With the Springbok Sevens team being based at the Stellenbosch University Sport Performance Institute, the Maties players have some of the world’s best to learn from and is something Campbell-McGeachy says has been beneficial in their preparations.
“I won’t say that it is an advantage, but it is obviously just a lot better for us because we do rub shoulders with the best in the world. It allows us to see what we have to work on very quickly because they can expose you very quickly because they are the best in the world.
“I am not sure what the other teams are doing to get beneficial results for their preparation. Personally, for Maties and myself, it is very beneficial playing against the best team in the world,” he said.
Depending on injuries and availability, Campbell-McGeachy will be hoping to call on a number of players from the Varsity Cup side with Mike Muller and Christoff van Tonder amongst a few that are certainties to play. The team will also be captained by a familiar face.
“At this stage the side will be captained by Braam Venter if he stays injury free. He played Varsity Sevens two years ago and he scored the winning try in the final in Camps Bay.
“He has also been part of the first-team setup for the last two years. He just decided on Sevens and not Varsity Cup this year,” he added.
When asked who will provide the main challenge for the title, it was the teams from the north that grabbed Campbell-McGeachy’s attention.
“It will definitely be Pukke and UJ at this stage. Tuks will also be in contention depending on how many players they have available. Kovsies are also always good and you can never throw them out,” he said.
