After two weeks of no action, Winter Rose is travelling to Port Alfred with the hopes of maintaining their pole position on the log. The Grahamstown side has been inactive for the past two weeks, with last week's matches suspended due to bad weather.
After two weeks of no action, Winter Rose is travelling to Port Alfred with the hopes of maintaining their pole position on the log. The Grahamstown side has been inactive for the past two weeks, with last week's matches suspended due to bad weather.
After nine rounds this campaign, Winter Rose is sitting on 30 points at the top of the table.
They face Kowie United, a side five places below them.
Winter Rose coach, Mfundo Manyati, says the two weeks they haven't played competitive rugby have certainly taken its toll on his players and that the squad has been rusty since they commenced their training schedule after last week’s heavy rains.
“This week the players have not been that great.
“We still have certain areas we need to work on before our fixture this weekend.
“What makes it even more difficult is the fact that we are playing away – but we are confident we will come home with the results,” said Manyati.
He added that he is worried about match officiation, as it has always been a problem for travelling teams.
He says home teams usually provide match officials and, he believes, they will always favour their home team.
Eastern Province rugby is supposed to provide match officials, but he says on many occasions that has not been the case.
While Manyati is casting doubt on the readiness of his team, his counterpart at Kowie United is exrpessing no such misgivings.
Kowie head coach, Stuart Abrahams, says they are ready to put a dent to the Winter Rose promotional playoff ambitions.
He says his team will have to make the most of their home advantage.
The last encounter between the two clubs was a close 20-16 win for Winter Rose in game hosted in Grahamstown.
After this week’s fixtures, only six games remain in this season and Manyati says the Winter Rose mission is to gain promotion and compete in the upper division, Adams cup.
