‘We will need to lift game,’ says Cheetahs coach after big scare against Lions

The Cheetahs are set to take some good lessons out of their catfight against the Lions at Ellis Park over the past weekend, where they were pushed all the way in picking up a 35-26 win in the Currie Cup.

In their previous encounter against the Lions the Cheetahs blew away the young and inexperienced side 66-14, but facing them with a number of URC reinforcements in the latest game proved to be a different kettle of fish.

The Lions players fronted up impressively and the Cheetahs showed a lot of rust, mainly due to the fact that this was just their second match since the end of March due to the structure of the competition and them having had a bye weekend.

“We definitely needed a night like this. It was a pity that we couldn’t play a few friendly games (in the build-up), there was just no one to play in the past month. So we needed a tough game and the Lions definitely gave it to us,” admitted Cheetahs coach Hawies Fourie.

“Their forwards played really well and it was just towards the end where we were able to capitalise on their two yellow cards and score that last maul try to put the game to bed.

“We have stronger opposition coming up and we will now need to lift our game and play a lot better than we did against the Lions.”

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One of the players who had a bad night for the Cheetahs was Bok star Frans Steyn, who made a number of mistakes on attack and defence, while he made a couple of errors with the boot as well.

“Everyone has their off-night and it was definitely his (against the Lions). He is a class player and he will bounce back. But he made a few mistakes and a few wrong decisions especially on attack,” explained Fourie.

“But he was at the alignment camp with the Springboks and only joined us the night before the match. So he couldn’t train with us the whole week.

“Not that that’s an excuse but it’s always difficult for those guys to switch off from the Springboks and on for the Cheetahs again in a short space of time. But he is quality and he will definitely bounce back and take this performance personally.”

The Cheetahs now have to prepare themselves for a tough run in, which sees them face teams who are battling it out to make it into the competition semifinals.

“When you go to the business end of the competition you have to be on top of your game. It’s not just the Bulls and Sharks, you look at the Pumas beating the Sharks in Durban, the Griquas are always a tough team to play, especially away in Kimberley,” said Fourie.

“So we have to produce against whoever we play, we want to finish top of the log. It’s going to be a tough run-in with the Sharks next in Bloemfontein, then the Griquas away, Pumas at home and Bulls at home.”