A tall order for United

Trustco United face a tall order this weekend if they hope to reach the semi-finals of the Windhoek Lager Rugby Premier League.

United, the defending champions, travel to Rehoboth to take on FNB Reho Falcon in their final league match tomorrow. They will have to win by at least 49 points if they hope to pip FNB Grootfontein to the knockout stages.

Grootfontein have already completed their league campaign and are in the driving seat in fourth place on 45 points. United is in fifth place, six points behind, with a 48-point aggregate deficit.

If United hope to pip Grootfontein to fourth place to reach the semi-finals, they will have to collect maximum bonus points by scoring at least seven tries, while they will also have to win by at least 49 points – a tall order indeed.

Despite the heavy odds against them, United coach Robbie Dickson believes they can still pull it through.

“I still believe we can make it to the semi-finals – we’ve got the team, we’ve got the structures and now we must just keep our fingers crossed and hope that the guys pitch on Saturday,” he says.

“Last weekend against Rehoboth we didn’t pitch in the first half but we were much better in the second half, which has been a regular feature this season, so we need to pitch from the start.”

United’s semi-final hopes suffered a big blow last weekend when they lost 32-26 to Rehoboth.

Dickson believes the officiating was not up to standard.

“I never like to blame the referee but I feel he didn’t pick up a lot of infringements by Rehoboth last weekend, especially at the breakdown where their players fell over the ball illegally. It’s an old Rehoboth thing, they don’t stay on their feet and fall over the ball and if the players are over the ball illegally, they can get hurt,” he says.

“We dominated the scrums but didn’t get the advantage from that. At the end we disintegrated their scrums but they were not penalised. But in the end we have to blame ourselves, we just didn’t pitch,” he adds.

Reho Falcon, who are sixth on the log, are out of the running for a semi-final spot but Dickson says he expects a strong onslaught from them.

“Even though they’ve got nothing to play for, we are expecting Falcons to come out firing at us. They’ve had a good season, they will be playing for pride and will want to end it off with a win. But we have done all the hard work, so now the players just need to pitch.”

FNB Kudus, meanwhile, also travel to Rehoboth to take on FNB Rehoboth in their final league match of the season.

The outcome is of little significance, as third-placed Kudus are already through to the knockout stages, but they can expect a tough match from Rehoboth. They have had an indifferent campaign, winning six and losing nine matches. Despite having nothing to play for they will be playing with passion and pride, as they showed against United last weekend.