Rugby
Bester out to impress on debut─── MORGAN PIEK 07:33 Thu, 09 May 2024
“I'm very excited and stuff is happening very fast, but coach Pieter actually had a chat with me and told me that I should just back myself, don't change anything to the way I played in the Varsity Cup.”
The Shimlas Varsity Cup-winning outside centre, Zane Bester, is more than excited to make his Suzuki Griquas debut on the weekend in the SA Cup.
Bester has been named in the starting XV for Saturday’s match against the SWD Eagles in Kimberley, and this after only joining the team on Monday.
He is one of five debutants that will be playing in the game of which Sazi Sandi and Connor Evans will also be in the run-on side.
Bester told OFM Sport that he will just continue doing what he does best and wants to impress on debut.
“I'm very excited and stuff is happening very fast, but coach Pieter actually had a chat with me and told me that I should just back myself, don't change anything to the way I played in the Varsity Cup.
“So yeah, I'm very excited and I'm hoping to impress a lot. I mean, I need to impress, but getting into this week, it's a different environment, but the guys at the Griquas made me feel welcome on the first day already.
“It’s very different and nice to train there as the coaches interact very professionally and it's really great.
“So I'm looking forward to it and hopefully, like I said, I obviously want to impress. For the first game, I'm just going to play the match the way I'm used to and just enjoy the game of rugby, because that's why we are all playing the sport.”
The match on Saturday at the Suzuki Stadium kicks off at 15:00.
Griquas - 15 Cameron Hufke, 14 Connor Mahoney, 13 Zane Bester, 12 Sango Xamlashe, 11 Sako Makata, 10 George Whitehead, 9 Bobby Alexander, 8 Carl Els, 7 Stephan Smit, 6 Thabo Ndimande, 5 Connor Evans, 4 Dylan Sjoblom, 3 Sazi Sandi, 2 Janco Uys, 1 Leon Lyons
Replacements - 16 Gustav du Rand, 17 Eddie Davids, 18 Cebo Dlamini, 19 Albert Liebenberg, 20 Marco de Witt, 21 Xavier Swartbooi, 22 Zinedine Robinson, 23 Mnombo Zwelendaba
SWD Eagles - TBA
Morgan Piek OFM Sport