The Maties hockey side will be taking nothing for granted when they face Cape rivals UCT in their Varsity Hockey clash in Johannesburg on Saturday.
The Ikeys may be one of the lowest ranked teams in the competition, but Maties coach Jenny King knows that they will provide a stern test for her side this weekend.
King explained to varsitysportssa that Maties’ old foes have made huge strides recently under coach Michael Joseph.
“They [UCT] have improved hugely over the last two years. They have got a new coach and he is very tactically organised so they have placed a big emphasis on their gameplans, they just need to build a bit of belief,” she said.
The Maties side will go into the encounter with a fair amount of confidence after the Western Province Under-21 team clinched the inter-provincial title last week, beating North West in the final, but they face a tough week before the trip to Johannesburg.
King is sweating on the fitness of a few key players who picked up injuries in the U21 championships, and there is also a league fixture against Western Province Cricket Club looming on Thursday.
“This week the focus will be on recovery, we have got a big match on Thursday and then we travel to Johannesburg on Friday and play UCT on Saturday so it is not ideal,” she explained.
However, King is quite confident that her squad will be able to handle the worklaod.
“Luckily our players are in good physical form, so it will just be a question of player management,” she said.
However, that does not mean that the match against UCT will be a walk in the park as they have already shown that they are not in the competition just to make up the numbers.
“They [UCT] have had an influx of quality individuals and ran Tuks close so it will be a tough match. There is not much separating the teams in the competition so every game is a challenge,” said King.
