FNB Wanderers take on FNB Kudus in a top-of-the-log Rugby Premier League clash at Walvis Bay tomorrow, but all eyes will be on the showdown in Windhoek between Trustco United and FNB Unam.
Wanderers on 34 points and Kudus on 29 have already booked their semifinal spots, but United (18) and Unam (17) are both still in the hunt and victory will be crucial for their title aspirations.
United head into the match after a bruising 47-24 defeat to Wanderers last weekend, but their coach Robbie Dickson said they took some positives from the match.
“It’s never nice losing a derby, but after watching the game a couple of times and having the analysis done, we’re actually quite happy with our performance. Two tries of ours were not given, one try of theirs came from a forward pass and we missed two conversions, so if things went our way we could well have won the game,” he said.
“We got a couple of injuries – our scrumhalf Elzandro van Wyk broke two fingers after he suffered a late tackle, so he’s out for the weekend, and then our outside centre Sammy Soobramoney injured his foot so I’m still not 100 per cent sure if he’ll be available,” he added.
Dickson said they worked on eliminating their mistakes against Wanderers.
“We have prepared well and worked on what went wrong – our defensive systems, set-pieces, and especially our line-outs in the second half were terrible against Wanderers. So we spent a lot of time on that and then we also just worked on our general play – protecting our ball better and putting our phases together better,” he said.
“We’re looking forward to the Unam challenge this weekend. We know it’s going to be hard, it’s a must-win match for us, but we are ready to kick off on Saturday and do the best that we can,” he added.
Unam coach Russel van Rooi said their momentum has picked up after a slow start to the season.
“We had a slow start to the season, but now we’ve won two games in a row and we’re in a good space at the moment. I think United will come out firing after their derby defeat, so we are expecting a titanic game, but we will field our strongest side and I have full confidence in my players,” he said.
Van Rooi said they are awaiting an injury assessment on versatile forward Oderich Mouton who could be in the starting line-up after returning from Poland, while the team will also be strengthened by national squad players like Jason Benade, Alcino Izaacs, Quirione Majiedt and Andrew Kearns.
It should be a cracking match that could go down to the wire.
FNB Western Suburbs (13 points) still have a remote chance of reaching the semis and will be targetting maximum bonus points when they host Reho Falcon, as will FNB Rehoboth Rugby Club (11 points) who will host FNB Dolphins.
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