'Happy' Van As eyeing SF place

FNB UJ coach Hugo van As was a very happy man after his team beat a strong Tuks side 9-3 in the pouring rain last night. This victory, of course, has left the Men from Johannesburg in with a very decent shout of qualifying for the semifinals of the 2009 FNB Varsity Cup presented by Steinhoff International.

UJ are now in fifth position on the Varsity Cup log and they need to beat FNB NMMU next Monday, whilst also hope that Tukkies lose their final league match to the table-topping Maties - in Stellenbosch - on the same day.

However, those possible semifinal permutations aside, coach Van As - who has had a tough season at the helm of UJ - was full of praise for his side after their hard-fought victory at the UJ Stadium.

"We played in very difficult conditions, with the rain coming down in buckets, but we are very happy with the win," Van As told varsitycup.co.za.

"We had a lot of chances to score in the first half which we again didn't use, but that's understandable if you take the weather conditions into account.

"Credit, however, must go to the Tuks side as well for giving it their all - it was a real battle out there."

In fact, it was such a big fight, that the home side had to defend their goalline for a full five minutes leading up to the full-time whistle. But they showed exceptional character throughout, according to their coach.

"It was a very physical match," commented Van As, "the players are definitely all going to feel it this morning!"

Van As felt that his team had a couple of chances to score some tries of their own in the first 50 minutes, but "unfortunately the last pass didn't always go to hand".

"The guys showed a lot of character and confidence by playing the ball wide and not kicking that much in those (trying) circumstances," he added.

"We are experiencing something of an upward curve since our (big) win over Shimlas and we're laying solid foundations now to build on for the rest of the season."

Looking ahead to the possibility of being involved in the play-offs - and ahead of his team's final league match against NMMU on Monday, March 16 (kick-off 6.45pm) - Van As admitted: "The semifinals will sort themselves out.

"We just have to focus on our remaining game next week against the 'Madibas'. They are a tough side to beat, especially at home, and we certainly won't underestimate them going there."

By Riaan Bam