SANLAM Boland U21 coach Juan de Jongh knows his team enters this year’s SA Rugby U21 Shield competition with a huge target on their backs.
However, the former Bok says he has the perfect solution and mantra to ensure his young lads stay focused on retaining the title they won last year.
“The hunted must become the hunter, De Jongh says when asked about whether there is putting extra pressure on his management staff and players to lift a back-to-back Shield.
We know we have a target on ours backs, everyone knows about us know in the way were successful [last season].
“But it’s important for us now that we set our goals. We know what we want to do within the camp, how we see the first couple of weeks, how we see the whole season. People will come for us but it’s important for us to keep working and striving to be better.
“Even though we have a target on our back, we have to become the hunters. We can’t become the hunted, so that’s very important, and we want to make sure we keep focusing on ourselves and not put focus on what other teams might bring to the party.”
In his second season as coach of the Sanlam Boland U21 side, De Jongh affirms that he is fortunate to have kept the core of the players that helped Boland win the Currie Cup U21 Shield last year.
“I am very fortunate to have 95 % of the same management team working with me this year, while last year everything went well, so we can just build and improve on this season.
“There are new players that came into the side, but we still have a big crop of last year’s players that can drive the standards that we have built.
“Standards in terms of how we operate, the quality of work and even with our general plays and shapes, they can assist with that and always make it much easier when there are a lot of new guys.
“The old faces around make sure that nothing changes too much.”
With the Currie Cup U21 Shield competition set to kick off toward the end of August, De Jongh’s side are planning to play a fair bit of friendlies and have already had a hit out after facing United States of America (USA) u23 team in a friendly game in Stellenbosch on Tuesday, 8 July.
And although his team came up second best in the chukkas, De Jongh is pleased with what he saw from his side.
“Our build-up has been excellent so far. I am happy in terms of our preparation. The competition is only set to start near the middle or the end of August, so that’s why we have got a lot of training sessions, pre-season warm-up games that we need to play to make sure we are nice and sharp.
“Tuesday’s game against USA U23 was a nice little hit out to see how far we are in terms of our technical stuff and our detail, and also gelling together as a team.
“The American side is a strong outfit, physically strong, so we kind of like the challenge, even though there is a lot of work in various departments that we need to cover. I feel very confident in how we can grow from that experience and strengthen as a squad.”