Victorious Cheetahs rue costly 'soft moments'
REACTION: The Cheetahs may have escaped with a ‘W’ and there are many positives. However, the team also still has too many ‘soft moments’.
Seasoned Springbok Frans Steyn – just minutes after missing with an attempt at goal – kicked a long-range penalty to hand the Cheetahs a thrilling 39-38 win over the Sharks in Bloemfontein on Wednesday.
Fellow veteran Bok and captain Ruan Pienaar said it was good to see that some of the plays they worked on in training came to fruition, when asked in his post-match media briefing about the Cheetahs more expansive approach.
However, it was the ‘soft moments’ in the game that really cost them.
The Cheetahs went into the half-time break with a well-deserved 28-12 lead, having outscored the visitors by four tries to two in an entertaining first half.
The Sharks changed tact after the break and a three-try blitz saw the Durban franchise claim the lead (38-36) with just over 10 minutes remaining.
“We let in a few soft tries,” Pienaar said about his team conceding such a big lead.
“There was a miscommunication between Speckies [wing Rosco Speckman] and myself with the one kick through, which we should have dealt with. Manie Libbok also kicked a ball through, it pinballed [bounced] around and he collected it for a try.
“It is those soft moments in the game we need to address.
“It is about putting up and 80-minute performance and getting rid of those soft moments in the game.
“We at least got the win, which is important to us.”
Coach Hawies Fourie said the first half was more pleasing than the second, especially the team’s execution of their plays.
“In the second half I was disappointed, especially in our scrumming,” Fourie said of the three set-piece penalties they conceded.
“That [penalties] is not acceptable. We have a solid front row and will have to make a step up there. We also conceded a few silly breakdown penalties.”
The coach was reluctant to express himself about the confusion that reigns in the scrums, where penalties are a dime a dozen.
“Marnus [van der Merwe], Aranos [Coetzee] and Cameron [Dawson] are good scrummagers, which confuses me. I felt our second half scrum was stronger than the one we fielded in the first half, yet we conceded three [scrum] penalties.
“The first scrum penalty [in the second half] went our way and [captain] Ruan [Pienaar] opted for another scrum, because he felt we had the stronger scrum. Then we were penalised in the next scrum.”
That was followed by two more scrum penalties, creating doubt in the Cheetahs camp.
“Fortunately we could recover and win the game.
“[Forwards coach] Izak [van der Westhuizen] will analyse the game and we will see what went wrong. We will work on the aspects we can fix.”
Fourie added that he was concerned that a number of players suffered with cramps in the latter stages of the game, since they had additional training and recovery time before the game – given that the preparation series is running on 10-day cycles.
He added they will have to look into the reasons for the cramping.
Centre Dries Swanepoel, a late withdrawal from the Sharks encounter, is struggling with knee injury.
Loose forward Jeandré Rudolph pulled his hamstring in training on Monday.
The Cheetahs are awaiting feedback from the doctor.
New recruit Brandon Thomson, also a late withdrawal from the Sharks encounter, will be back for the next match.
The rotation policy will continue when they play the Pumas in the third round in Nelspruit next Friday, March 19.
Fourie admitted there will be many ‘new faces’ in the starting XV.
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- Picture credit: @CheetahsRugby
