The FNB NMMU-Madibaz came within a stone's throw away from beating the FNB NWU-Pukke at the Fanie du Toit Stadium in Potchefstroom on Monday night, after taking a three point lead with 10 minutes remaining.
The cards were, literally, stacked up against them as they received one red and one yellow, resulting in two tries in the final minutes and ultimately a ten point defeat at the hands of last year's losing finalist.
Despite their 36 - 26 loss, head coach David Maidza said he was impressed with his squad's overall performance.
"Given that it was our first game as a team and with us having a young squad, especially upfront, I’m proud of what the boys put out," said Maidza.
"I have a feeling that Pukke will have another season with a really good pack this year and our forwards did well to stand up to that challenge."
"However, their mauls were very effective and that is where they killed us; we just didn’t get out of our own half."
He said he would be speaking to his team about putting too much focus on defence and not enough on the attack.
"There were a couple of issues with our attack, I don’t think it was as precise as it should have been."
"I feel that if we had developed more discipline and not given away as many penalties for them to kick into the corner, we would have come out with a better result."
However, he said it was early in the season and there was still time to improve.
"The three main areas we will be working on ahead of the next game are our attack strategy and ball protection, the sharpness of our one-on-one defence and, of course, our exits."
Madibaz next game is at home against the visiting FNB CUT, but for Maidza it does not mean an advantage.
"It is another chance for us to make sure that we concentrate, improve on our strategy as a squad and keep getting better as the tournament progresses," he added.
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