UJ will be a tough team to beat in this year’s Varsity Sevens tournament if you believe their head coach and former BlitzBoks captain Jonathan Mokoena.
Having been under the tutelage of Mokoena since last year June, the Joburg side will be relying on the former player’s vast Sevens experience as they only had a few weeks preparation for this year’s event.
“I want to win Varsity Sevens. That is my first goal. I don’t want us to just be competitive. I want to win it,” Mokoena told varsitysportssa.com.
“Preparation has been good. Obviously if I could have my way I would probably have the guys for six months instead of six weeks, but you got to work with what you been given and I believe we are well prepared.”
Mokoena is not pleased with the amount of Varsity Cup players available to him, but he will try and do the best he can with the few he has got.
“Unfortunately I only got two or three players that played Varsity Cup. There was a few that I requested but certain issues could not be resolved, so I worked with the guys that wanted to play and who were keen to learn,” he said.
Mokoena said there is nothing to choose between the sides competing and believe any team can walk away with the title by the end of the weekend.
“There is NMMU who have Fabian Juries assisting them, Pukke, Maties and Tuks. But at the end of the day it is going to come down to the players that wants it more.
“The Maties have been training against the Boks and that is experience you cannot buy. They have also been together for quite a while so it is going to be a really tough tournament,” said Mokoena.
When asked about his experience of transitioning from player to coach, Mokoena mentioned a few positives and challenges so far in his short new career.
“When you are a player you are more relaxed, you just do what you get told. Now as a coach you need to prepare, you stress more, you need to worry about your players and if you covered everything. It is enjoyable and it is something different, but definitely fun.
“I would love to coach professionally full-time. It is something I am passionate about and I don’t think that a lot of people do what we do,” he added.
