UCT coach Monwabisi Ralarala is hoping that his team will use their dark horse status to take a few of the more fancied Varsity Football teams by surprise.
By Ralarala’s own admission UCT are not well-known as a ‘footballing varsity’, but he is hoping to use that factor to their advantage when they get their campaign underway against Kovsies in Bloemfontein next week.
Ralarala took the reins in Cape Town in 2011 and immediately made an impact, taking the team to their first USSA tournament in seven years last year.
There they ran into the two eventual finalists – Tuks and NWU – in the group stage and ended up finishing top of the lower division in ninth position.
“I did not have all of my first team players available for that tournament, so we did quite well to finish in ninth place,” Ralarala told varsitysportssa.com.
Having faced the two top sides at the USSA tournament, the UCT boss knows exactly what to expect in Varsity Football, and he is planning on springing a few surprises with a full-strength side at his disposal.
“No-one takes us very seriously as a football varsity, so we want to use that to our advantage and hopefully some teams will underestimate us,” he said.
After holding a productive training camp in Cape Town during the holidays, Ralarala is confident that his team will be competitive in Varsity Football.
“I am happy with how the boys have responded, but we won’t take anything for granted. We will build our game on a solid defence with a couple of players up front who can make a difference,” he explained.
Ralarala said that since qualifying for USSA last year he has received more backing from university management at UCT who are clearly taking football more seriously, and he is hopeful that the supporters will turn out in their numbers for home games.
“We know that football is not as highly regarded at UCT as some other sports, but we have a task to play winning football so that people identify with the team and come out and support them,” he said.
