Cheetahs sneak past Madibaz

The Cheetahs were made to work hard for their narrow 31-26 victory over the NMMU Madibaz in Port Elizabeth on Tuesday.

It was a second-string Cheetahs side which faced the Varsity Cup outfit from the Eastern Cape, and they were pushed all the way in a tight encounter.

The home side managed to score four tries against the Bloemfontein franchise, which will be a massive confidence boost ahead of their Varsity Cup campaign.

However, the Cheetahs managed to do just enough to secure a tense victory in the end, as they ran in five tries to edge the Madibaz.

Wings Cornal Hendricks, Rayno Benjamin and Raymond Rhule all crossed the whitewash, with forwards Johannes Prinsloo and Caylib Oosthuizen also getting their names on the scoresheet.

Utility back Riaan Smit was playing at flyhalf and slotted three conversions to hand the Cheetahs a victory, although they by no means had everything their own way.

The scorers:

For NMMU:

Tries: Ngam, Barnard, Cloete, Bernardt

Cons: Allerston, Haupfleisch 2

For the Cheetahs:

Tries: Prinsloo, Hendricks, Oosthuizen, Benjamin, Rhule

Cons: Smit 3

Teams:

NMMU: 15 Jarryd Buys, 14 Yamkela Ngam, 13 Michael Bernardt, 12 Steven Hansel, 11 Tythan Adams, 10 Gavin Hauptfleisch, 9 Enrico Acker, 8 Tim Agaba, 7 Wade Elliott, 6 Marcel Groenewald, 5 Stefan Willemse, 4 Louis Fourie, 3 Dexter Fahey, 2 Martin Ferreira, 1 Roy Godfrey (captain).

Replacements: TBC

Cheetahs: 15 Hennie Daniller, 14 Cornal Hendricks, 13 Piet Lindeque, 12 Howard Mnisi, 11 Rayno Benjamin, 10 Riaan Smit, 9 Inus Kritzinger, 8 Johannes Prinsloo, 7 Teboho Mohoje, 6 Carel Greeff, 5 Rynhardt Landman, 4 Andries Ferreira, 3 Nico van Dyk, 2 Torsten van Jaarsveld, 1 Caylib Oosthuizen.

Replacements: 16 Hercu Liebenberg, 17 Trevor Nyakane, 18 Rossouw de Klerk, 19 Francois Uys, 20 Hilton Lobberts, 21 Kevin Luiters, 22 Elgar Watts, 23 Raymond Rhule.