Centurion: Peter Kirsten is rarely in the habit of borrowing thoughts from someone else book of favourite phrases but Steve Waugh comments at this year World Cup was not a bad starting point for the Northerns coach.

On being presented with the Super Eights schedule for the SuperSport Series which starts next month he shrugged his shoulders, admitted it was ``a tough programme'' and agreed that Northerns, who go into the series in position seven, have a lot of work to do.

``Well just have to win all our matches, wont we,'' he said yesterday. ``It tough all right, but if that is what it is going to take to reach the final then well have to work that little harder. We cant afford any slip ups along the way. It is as simple as that.'' Which is remarkably similar to Waugh comments when, after reaching the World Cup Super Sixes in June he said, after a look at the log, ``we have a tough programme and a lot of work to do to get to the final''.

The only team below Northerns on the Super Eights log after this past weekend games are Western Province, whom they meet next month in Centurion the week after the opening Super Eights match against Boland, who are four points above Northerns on the log.

With teams carrying over the points earned from the first round against those sides which qualified, Northerns defeat in Port Elizabeth earlier this month is, as Kirsten suggests, ``very bad news in what was partly a disappointing month''.

Northerns start their tough December schedule with the first of the Standard Bank Series games against Eastern Province at home, followed from December 3 to 6 with the A Section match against Boland. They will be involved 15 days out of the first 23 during December which includes four day/night and three A Section games.

``What makes it tough is that we have to mix the limited-overs game format with that of the four-day games and it means preparing to two types of matches,'' said Kirsten. ``It is far from easy. But we have to accept and get on with the job.''

Northerns have been drawn against the four sides they did not face in their Pool A group: Boland, Western Province, Free State and KwaZulu/Natal, in that order. Natal are second on the log and Free State, after their amazing victory over Natal, managed to take a further 10 points through on the strength of this victory at Kingsmead.

The rescheduled programme is: Dec 1, v Eastern Pro (d/n Centurion); 3-6 v Boland (Centurion, Super 8s); Dec 8 v Border (d/n, East London); Dec 10-13 v Western Province (Centurion, Super 8s); Dec 15 v Free State (d/n Centurion),  Dec 17-18 v Free State (Bloemfontein, Super 8s); Dec 23 v Easterns (d/n, Benoni).

Super Eights                 P  W  L  D  Bat  Bowl  Pts

Border                       3  2  0  1   9    12   41
Natal                        3  2  1  0  11     9   40
Gauteng                      3  1  1  1  12     9   31 
Eastern Prov                 3  1  2  0   5    12   27 
Free State                   3  1  0  2   7     7   24 
Boland                       3  0  1  2   6    11   17
Northerns                    3  0  1  2   6     7   13 
Western Prov                 3  0  1  2   5     4    9

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