Mixing new and old players a boon for Richards Bay

For a rookie side, Richards Bay have so far punched above their weight.

The Natal Rich Boys have already garnered three victories from six league outings, with a draw and two defeats. Bay face  table-topping KZN foes Royal AM at Chatsworth Stadium this afternoon (5.30pm). Bay striker Somila “Balotelli” Ntsundwana is chalking up their promising start to what’s their maiden premiership campaign to a good mixture of seasoned-campaigners and fledging stars. 

“The club signed a lot of good players who have experience and mixed them with younger players. The mixture has worked wonders for us because the younger players come with that hunger while the senior guys help with experience,” Ntsundwana told Sowetan yesterday.

While keeping the core of the team that helped them gain promotion from the second tier, Bay brought in several high-profile stars such as Luvuyo Memela, Nkanyiso Zungu and Ntsikelelo Nyauza among others during the off season.

Ntsundwana is one of the players who was there when the team was promoted and he’s still a key player this term, having already contributed a goal and an assist from five outings. The 25-year-old striker feels form will count for nothing against Thwihli Thwahla as it’s a derby. 

“We are both coming from wins [Bay beat Stellenbosch away while Royal also claimed a win on the road versus Sekhukhune at the weekend], so we’re both high in confidence. It’s two on-form teams but since it’s a derby, the form goes out of the window. The team that wants it more on the day will win. Finer details will determine the winner. We’ll go there and fight,” Balotelli said.

It’s Bay’s second KZN derby, having beaten Golden Arrows 2-0 in the opening game of the campaign.

Ntsundwana has urged his teammates to draw motivation from that win over Abafana Bes’thende. “We now know how it is like to claim the bragging rights because we beat Arrows. It’s wonderful to win a derby, so we want to win against Royal. Beating Arrows should motivate us to do well in all the upcoming derbies, starting against Royal tomorrow [today],” Ntsundwana said.