Roelof Kotze is confident his youngsters can bring home a medal from one if not both of the two legs of the Asian RFU Under-20 7s.
Kotze, UAE rugby’s performance manager, saw his team finish sixth out of seven nations on their last tour of Asia in December. But he is upbeat about his young charges finishing on the podium in either Malaysia or Hong Kong this time around.
The UAE travel to Johor Bahru for the first leg of the ARFU U-20 7s series on August 15-16 before the second leg a week later in Hong Kong between August 21-22.
Kotze says he has made up his mind about his final squad and will discuss it with the national team committee today, an official announcement expected at the end of the week. At the UAE’s final training session before the team is announced at 7he Sevens last night, the South African said he believes his men have improved greatly in the last eight months and should go into the double header with confidence.
“We were sixth in Hong Kong but we want to get on the podium this time,” said the 45-year-old.
“We won’t be as dark a horse as we were in Hong Kong. The mistakes we made are relatively easy to fix and should stop us from losing games we shouldn’t.
“Of the other sides last year, there wasn’t a lot more that they could do better. We’ve got a lot of room for improvement, whereas a lot of them were nearly the finished product. As a team we’ve got better since December.”
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The U-20s have been training in Dubai for a few weeks and Kotze admitted he has been pleased with what he’s seen.
“I’m starting to feel a bit more happy, the boys are starting to gel and understand what I want them to do,” he said.
“I’m positive. We’re in for contending for a medal and worst case scenario we want to be fourth. It’s starting to look like we can play a bit so we will see.”
A mixed UAE U-20s side performed admirably in Hong Kong eight months ago and Kotze admits he will use that as a yardstick to measure his team’s improvement in that period. The UAE won two of their seven games in Hong Kong but three of their defeats were by just two points.
Kotze sang the praises of his youngsters, who he said have worked hard in recent weeks.
“I’ve only asked one thing of the boys and that’s to work hard. It’s been hot and it’s been unpleasant but they’ve given their all and I can’t ask for anything more than that,” he said.
“I always say I’ll take guys who work hard and give their all than good guys who are arrogant and think they’re better.
“I’m old school like that. I don’t have a place for those sorts of people. This isn’t soccer, we don’t do prima donnas.
“What I see from my boys in the squad right now is that they’re giving 100 per cent all the time.”
