“It was very important to start the season with a win. That was our first and most important goal. The fact that we scored five tries to take maximum points from the game will mean a lot for our momentum and confidence,” said Nollis.

He is not bothered by the opinion of Port Elizabeth based rugby writers who referred to Tuks’ performance as a poor show : it was not the visitors that were good, but the home team that was bad.

“We never expected to fire on all cylinders against the Madibaz as our team still needs to become a unit. We have many players from other unions who were used to different rugby cultures and game patterns. It will take time to get them to become the brotherhood they and we as management team are striving for.”

“The big positive we can take from the win against NMMU is our solid defence as their solo try was only scored late in the second half, even though they had plenty of other try scoring opportunities. It tells a lot of a team’s character if every player is prepared to put his body on the line in order to make our try-line a no go zone.”

The fact that Tuks scored five tries shows that they are evenly well equipped as an attacking team, added Nollis.

“I have already told the players our next match will a case of no guts, no glory as the TUT chaps will outplay themselves to beat us for the first time at Varsity Cup level. They made UJ work very hard for its 32-23 win in the opening round and we will be plain stupid to not take note of that. We expect a tremendous onslaught and will have to make a step up to beat it off.”

Tuks will name their 23 today. There will be one forced change in the starting 15 due to right wing GD Kotzee’s knee injury.