Club season crucial to Varsity College’s 2025 Shield prep

The Comets stunned the competition by making it to the finals in their first season in the Shield, and coach Jeremy McLaren is confident that his side can build on that stand-out first season performance.

Although their memorable performance in the Shield this year is something to be proud of, coach McLaren knows that they will go into next year’s competition with a target firmly on their back.

“We were definitely the unknowns this year and next year we won’t be,” McLaren said.

“Teams are going to target us next season and we have got to make sure that we are prepared for that when it happens because we’re no longer the newbies.

“We’ve got to evolve our game and make sure that we are as well prepared and conditioned as we can be.”

Part of that preparation is the current Moor Cup season. FNB Varsity College haven’t started as well as they would have liked, however McLaren knows that there is a bigger picture in mind when playing in the local club competition.

“We’ve earmarked certain matches where we want to give guys a go against the more experienced club sides in Durban.

“We’ve aligned local club sides with what we would expect from some of the teams in the Varsity Shield and those are matches that we’ll look to expose our squad to,” McLaren explained.

Being able to give players the chance to scrum, jump and tackle some strong, experienced players in Durban is a critical part of McLaren’s preparation for next season.

“To have guys coming up against props that are ten years older than them and have played the game for many years at a high level is invaluable.

“Even though we might be stronger than them, experienced players bring a different physicality to the game.

“Also to play against some very experienced flyhalves who know how to put you under pressure will be another important learning curve for our young side.

“It’s going to be another exciting season for us and with our Shield preparation starting now it adds another important element to this club season for us.”

Having to juggle the club season and the preparations for the Varsity Shield, McLaren feels that this season it might be a case of getting the correct plans in place to build on next year.

“If we are strong in the club season then we’ll be strong in the Shield, and we want to make sure that we are competing in every game during our club season.

“There’s a lot of space for us to grow and work on our attack shape and grow amongst the forwards.

“With that added experience of a full club season I believe that we will be good come the Varsity Shield next year.

“We’ve told the players that we need to start building now because whatever we improve on now will make us better next season,” McLaren added.

FNB Varsity College tackle College Rovers on Friday, 17 May on Kings Park 3 at 20:30 in Round 5 of the Moor Cup.