A coach’s job is seemingly never done. A mere 48 hours after Tuks’ u.20 team won the Varsity Young Guns Tournament last week, their coach, Kennedy Tsimba, was off to a high school rugby tournament to scout for new talent.

He is also already strategizing what needs to be done for Tuks to remain the Blue Bulls u.20 club champions. Last year two Tuks teams contested the Blue Bulls final in the top u.20 league.

Tsimba believes being a good coach means being innovative.

“You actually don’t have a choice in modern rugby. In my playing days, there was no internet. But nowadays, young players got access to so much information. They can search on the web how to improve in basically any aspect of their game. Often before we have even left the stadium, they are on their phones watching the highlights of the game they just played. It means you, as a coach, can’t trick them. The challenge is to stay one step ahead of them,” the former Zimbabwe international flyhalf explained.

He also believes a coach got to get the buy-in of his players. That is why Tuks’ first Varsity Young Gun game against UCT in Cape Town was so crucial. They were told beforehand it is the windiest stadium in the world, and this was no lie. During the first half, every time a player kicked it seemed as if the ball was blown backwards.

“The players had no choice but to resort to running the ball. It worked. We scored the first try and came away with a convincing victory. To me, it was our first big moment of the tournament. The exciting thing was that the players realised what they had been practising work, giving them confidence,” he remarked.

According to Tsimba, the biggest mistake any coach can make is to panic or get upset when things go wrong on the field.

“During last week’s final, there was a moment when there was a misunderstanding between two players, leading to no one catching the ball. Northwest capitalised on the mistake and scored a try. Through experience, I had learned how you as a coach react when things go wrong has a considerable influence on the players. So, I let it pass and during the break, I just told the players that there would be pressure moments. It is how they handle it that will impact the game’s outcome,” he concluded.

Tsimba still holds the record as the player who was the quickest to score 1000 points in all SA Rugby competitions (Currie Cup, Vodacom Cup and Super Rugby). In his native country, Zimbabwe, he is considered a rugby legend and he was inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame in 2012.

Do you have more information about the story?

Please send us an email to editorial@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.

For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites: Rekord East

For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram