Joubert: 'Hamilton's the favourites'
Rudy Joubert, the coach of the defending champion NWU-Pukke, believes his team will go into Saturday's SAA National Club Championship Final in Pretoria against South Africa's oldest club, Hamilton's, as underdogs.
Joubert was speaking after Pukke - who are aiming to win their fourth Club Champs title in six years - advanced to the final thanks to a 43-16 semifinal win over Springs at the LC de Villiers stadium on the University of Pretoria's sport campus on Thursday.
WP champions Hamilton's, founded in 1875, have swept all before them this week and cemented their reputation as the country's best open club with a clinical 34-12 win over 2008 finalists and KZN champions, College Rovers.
The final will take place at Loftus Versfeld with kick-off at 1pm.
"I think Hamilton's are probably the favourites going into this game," Joubert told the South African Press Association.
"They've played some really good rugby this week. They've got a very strong pack of forwards and some hard-running backs with a lot of pace on the wings.
"There are no faults in their game or their team," added the former Springbok assistant coach, "so it's going to be one of those games where we have to minimise our mistakes and grab any opportunity that comes our way."
The match is also a dream final, as it pits SA's form university and open club against each other to decide the overall club crown. Pukke, of course, were the losing finalists in the 2009 FNB Varsity Cup presented by Steinhoff International Final; going down 6-11 to Maties in Stellenbosch back in late March.
Tertiary teams have won 11 of the past 12 Club Champs titles with only Pirates of Johannesburg, in 2001, breaking the student stranglehold on the trophy.
Ironically, Hamilton's beat the Golden Lions champions in Tuesday's quarterfinal.
Joubert said his team would also be motivated by the chance to retain their crown.
"If we make it, it will be the first time that we defend the title successfully, so that's a bit of motivation for us," he said.
"We hop, skip and jump every second year (they won in 2004, 2006 and 2008), but I'm pleased particularly by the way we finished against Springs and if we can do it on Saturday we'll be in with a good chance. We created a lot of try-scoring opportunities and now we just have to finish them off."
For 'Hammies', who beat perennial Cape qualifiers Maties - the back-to-back Varsity Cup champions - to win the WP league for the first time since 1936, victory over the Potchefstroom students will cap off the most successful season in the Sea Point club's 134-year history.
Winning a maiden Club Champs title would also signal a remarkable turnaround in the fortunes of a club that very nearly closed its doors a few years ago after they found themselves on the brink of relegation to the WP third division.
Since then, however, Hamilton's has rebuilt itself from the ground up, and boasts a junior membership of over 300 children. At senior level, the club recruited a number of current and former Provincial players to help them regain their former glory and the investment has paid off.
"It's a dream come true for us," said Hamilton's President Dave Kagan.
"If we had written the script we couldn't have made it any better. We know we haven't won anything yet but to make it to the final in our first appearance is something I'm very proud of.
"Now we want to make sure that we leave the successors at our club with something to be proud of."
Kagan praised the role of head coach Anton Moolman in 'Hammies' revival.
"When the chips are down, this team doesn't believe it can lose," he said.
"Anton has done an incredible job of instilling this mindset into the players. They are like brothers and know each other so well.
"We believe we're in with more than a 50-50 chance on Saturday, but our feet are firmly on the ground."