2017 and 2019 Varsity Netball champions Tuks started their campaign in the 2022 competition with a reshuffled squad having lost a great number of their troops who took the team to third place in last year’s tournament in Stellenbosch.
Tuks will take on NWU and UJ at the upcoming bumper weekend at the Callie Human in Bloemfontein during the third weekend of 2022 Varsity Netball action and will be looking to cement a semi-final spot.
Despite the recent changes, Tuks coach Jenny van Dyk believes her players are equipped for the task ahead.
“We’ve been building for a while now and only a few players have played Varsity Netball in the past, but that is Varsity life for you. You won’t always have depth in the squad, there are always new players coming in and others going off and sometimes too many players going off at the same time.”
The two-time Varsity Netball champions fell short in their 2021 season, finishing 3rd. This is something Van Dyk is itching to rectify this time around.
“The first focus point for us is to be very competitive in our matches to put ourselves in a position where we can win at the end of the match. We need to make sure we secure a semi-final spot, and for that, we need a few big wins.”
Van Dyk recently led the South African University netball team to the gold medal at the 2022 CUCSA Games, beating hosts Malawi 85-13 in the final. She stresses the importance of a competition like Varsity Netball for feeding through players to the national structures.
“Varsity Netball plays an important role because most players come from university set-ups. As I was doing my preparations, I thought to myself when we choose the player of the tournament, your name gets inserted on the ball. I think we should look at those players and see how many of them become part of the Proteas at the end of the day.”
By Lehlogonolo Ditshego
