No second chance is the motivator for the 2022 Varsity Hockey edition at the TuksHockey Astro.

The team that loses its first match will play out for third/fourth place. That is why the TuksHockey men’s head coach, Sihle ‘Sigz’ Ntuli, considers the match against Maties as a final before the final. The two teams were the main protagonists at the recent 2022 USSA Hockey Championships. Tuks got the better of Maties during the group stages, but Maties played the better hockey when it mattered in the final. That is why they are the champions. 

According to Ntuli, if one takes the statistics of the USSA Hockey final into account, Tuks was the better team. But he adds on to say that matches are never being won on paper. 

"Tuks and Maties sort of balance each other when it comes to having national players. Most of our team has played for the senior national team and the South African under-21 side as has Maties. But it does not make my job as the coach any easier. 

"It can be challenging to get good players to play together as a team and not do their own thing trying to prove a point. But we have succeeded in the past. There is no reason why we can't do so again.

"What made the difference in the USSA final was that Maties made their opportunities to score count. We only got ourselves to blame. At crucial times, we let ourselves down through a lack of discipline. There were too many yellow cards. It left us at a disadvantage for most of the game.

"The only way to fix this on Wednesday when we play Maties again is to focus on what we are good at. Every player will have to be at their best. More importantly, the players need to remain on the field. 

"One of the drawbacks we have as a Tuks team is that we are not playing enough crunch games. Our players hardly ever get challenged in any local league game. They are cruising. Winning one game after another. It is different in the Johannesburg and the Western Cape leagues. That is why the Maties, Wits and UJ players are used to handling pressure situations on the field."

Interestingly, this will be Ntuli’s Varsity Hockey debut.

UJ and Wits will be playing the other semi-final in the afternoon. The final will be played on Thursday, 6 October. Hockey forms part of the Varsity Sports Festival hosted at the Hillcrest Sports Campus of the University of Pretoria.