Cheetahs ready to 'attack' Stormers
The Cheetahs, already one of the most exciting teams, will look to give full vent to their attacking senses against the Stormers in Bloemfontein on Saturday.
Assistant coach Hawies Fourie feels the team has not yet hit its straps in terms of attack, despite winning their last four games – including a record three successive wins in Australasia – and scoring 12 tries in the four outings.
The Stormers, renowned for their impressive tackling, in the last few weeks have shown some cracks in a previously near impenetrable defensive wall.
And the Cheetahs will look to pry those cracks open even further.
"On attack we are still not quite on the standard we want to be," Fourie told this website in an interview during the build-up to Saturday's crucial all-South African derby.
"We would like to bring a bit more intensity [on attack] than we have and be more accurate in our execution."
The Cheetahs' backline coach knows that possession is vital and feels his team needs to be more accurate in their execution.
"We still concede turnovers too easily and too often," Fourie said, adding: "We also can't build enough phases and put enough pressure on the opposition's defence.
"The second half against the Rebels [last week] it started getting better, even though the conditions weren't the greatest," he said of the very wet weather in Bloemfontein.
"That second half [our attack] was much better than any of our games this season and we want to build on that.
"We are a team that enjoys giving the ball air and play ball-in-hand rugby and not kick a lot.
"We have to be better in terms of our execution, then our attack will get to the standard we have set ourselves."
Asked if they were happy with the quality of their set pieces, Fourie said: "Our scrums have been good this season.
"The line-outs have been good for most games, with the exception the [opening round] match against the Sharks, where we lost five balls [on our own throw].
"In the other games we had good quality line-out possession.
"We work very hard on those aspects, the forwards are putting the hard yards in and I am confident we will get enough quality possession."
By Jan de Koning
