Cheetahs could inflict ‘a lot of pain’, warns Pumas coach

Pumas coach Jimmy Stonehouse has warned that the dangerous Cheetahs back three could cause havoc in this year’s Super Rugby Unlocked competition after watching them in action against his charges in a 53-31 defeat in Bloemfontein on Saturday.

Wingers Malcolm Jaer and Rosko Specman, along with fullback Clayton Blommetjies, looked unstoppable at times, with Jaer crossing the whitewash three times and Specman notching up a brace of tries.

“We really thought we may have the goods to deliver a shock result when we arrived in Bloem, but obviously as the result indicates, it didn’t exactly work out that way. The rugby we played in the second half, though, showed how capable we really can be.”

Pointers

Best laid plans: Stonehouse said they had planned not to kick onto the Cheetahs back-three, but as the game started unravelling, it turned out very differently.

“The guys kicked onto them and they really inflicted a lot of pain on us. Believe me when I say, they are going to hurt a lot of other teams with that back three of theirs.”

Catch-up rugby: Stonehouse said it didn’t help to show their worth only in the second half and it was made even more difficult by having to play catch-up rugby.

“We talked at length about this. We are still sitting with seven rookies who came straight out of our U-21 ranks, which made it very difficult when one compares that with the experience of the Cheetahs, but we knew that beforehand.”

Lineout woes: Stonehouse admitted they had struggled to secure their own lineout ball, particularly in the first half.

“In the second half we managed to hold on to possession for longer periods and chased the tempo more, so it worked better for us in the last 40.”

Cheetahs backlash: In all his interviews before the game, Stonehouse said the Cheetahs were a wounded side and warned that they would come at them with everything in their quest to prove they belonged in the Pro14.

“We knew it was coming and braced ourselves for it but in the first period we simply failed to contain wave after wave of attack that they launched.”

Improved set-pieces: The Pumas fared much better in the scrums, but the lineouts kept them on the back foot.

Half-time talk: “It is not nice to get back in to the change rooms at the break facing such a huge first-half deficit. We just told one another that we needed to go out there and increase the tempo and work for a possible bonus point, so we didn’t emerge empty-handed from the match,” added Stonehouse.

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