Exciting Cheetahs wing Duncan Saal finally gets his chance

Exciting former Maties star Duncan Saal has been on the radar of Cheetahs coach Hawies Fourie for a long time.

The 22-year-old winger – who scored three hat-tricks for Maties in the Varsity Cup, was signed by the Cheetahs last year.

Due to injuries, however, he will make his debut for the side only on Friday night when he features in a Currie Cup game against the Pumas in Nelspruit.

Saal was part of the Western Province U-21 title-winning squad in 2017 and formed part of the Stormers squad for the Super Rugby competition last season.

“I know Duncan very well and I have coached him since 2016,” said Fourie, a former Maties coach.

“He went through a difficult time over the last two years when he was troubled by injuries, tearing his medial ligaments in February last year, and ever since then he was recovering from that.”

Even after Saal had fully recovered and was eventually ready, Fourie said there wasn’t a place for him in the side and he had to be patient.

“But we have had a few injuries to our outside backs and he worked well the last few weeks,” Fourie said.

“He is in form, he is ready in terms of fitness and I felt he deserved a chance to be in the starting line-up.”

Apart from moving veteran Frans Steyn to flyhalf, the other big move made by Fourie this week was the naming of former Bulls player Dries Swanepoel next to Howard Mnisi at centre.

“Dries had a very good game last weekend against the Lions when he came off the bench and we thought we must reward him for that,” Fourie said.

“With the move of Frans to flyhalf it also made it possible for us to move Dries into the starting team.”

Fourie felt the title holders were ready to recover their campaign after crushing defeats in their opening two Currie Cup games against the Bulls and the Lions.

“We have focused a lot on our mental state of mind,” he said.

“There have been a lot of issues with our discipline.”

Cheetahs: Clayton Blommetjies, Duncan Saal, Dries Swanepoel, Howard
Mnisi, William Small-Smith, Frans Steyn, Ruben de Haas, Jeandré Rudolph, Aidon Davis, Andisa Ntsila, Reniel Hugo, Carl Wegner (capt), Khutha Mchunu, Marnus van der Merwe, Boan Venter.

Bench: Louis van der Westhuizen, Cameron Dawson, Erich de Jager, Oupa Mohoje, Chris Massy, Tian Meyer, Reinhardt Fortuin, Rhyno Smith.

Pumas: Tapiwa Mafura, Etienne Taljaard, Erich Cronje, Ali Mgijima,
Luther Obi, Devon Williams, Chriswill September, Willie Engelbrecht, Phumzile Maqondwana, Daniel Maartens, Pieter Jansen van Vuren (capt), Le Roux Roets, Ignatius Prinsloo, Simon Westraadt, Morgan Naude.

Bench: AJ le Roux, Dewald Maritz, Wikus Groenewald, Darrien Landsberg, Ewart Potgieter, Ginter Smuts, Tiaan Botes, Wayne van der Bank.

Kickoff: 7pm

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