After their hammering of 51-19 at the hands of the Bulls in a Super Rugby match on Saturday, the Cheetahs boarded their plane for Australasia knowing that they have to make some sort of mind shift.
Sport24
The side risks finishing at the bottom of the log and even being chucked out of the competition to make way for the Southern Kings.
The Bloemfontein-based side were completely dominated by the Bulls forward pack.
Poor defence and decision making combined with an impressive defensive performance by the Bulls saw the hosts struggling from the word go.
The Bulls scored no less than six tries, a harsh reminder that the Cheetahs defence wasn’t up to scratch.
“We played a good kicking game, but we were nowhere near good enough on defence. We also allowed the Bulls to get far too many turnovers,” Cheetahs coach Naka Drotské said.
Bulls coach Frans Ludeke praised his charges for their good defence against the Cheetahs.
The Bulls will play the Blues next at Loftus Versfeld and will be looking to build on the momentum gained from their wins over the Sharks and Cheetahs.
“We are willing to work hard for each other and that makes all the difference. We approach every game differently and take it week by week” Bulls stand-in captain Chiliboy Ralepele said.
“The competition doesn’t get any easier with us playing the Blues next week. But we are just going to regroup and look ahead to the game at Loftus.”
Cheetahs hooker and captain Adriaan Strauss scored his team’s only try after Bulls scrumhalf Francois Hougaard was red carded for a dangerous tackle on Robert Ebersohn.
Hougaard received a one-week ban from Sanzar’s duty judicial officer Mike Heron on Sunday.
Strauss said the team were disappointed with their performance and conceded that the Bulls were tactically better than they were.
“They came at us with numerous attacks and we had to defend a great deal, and that tired us out,” said Strauss.
“When we got into their half we just could not hold on to the ball, while their defence were also very good.”
The Cheetahs will face the Brumbies in their first match of the Australasian tour followed by the Melbourne Rebels.
Strauss said his team were looking forward to the tour and would ratify the mistakes they made against the Bulls.
“Overall we could have done better, and we didn’t,” said Strauss.
“We now face a tough tour, but the guys are positive about that, especially after we did so well on tour last season.
“We know we can win on tour, so we’re looking forward to playing abroad.”
Cheetahs Tour Schedule:
- 10 March 2012, 08:35 SA Time – Brumbies vs Cheetahs, Canberra Stadium, Canberra
- 18 March 2012, 07:10 SA Time – Melbourne Rebels vs Cheetahs, AAMI Park, Melbourne
- 24 March 2012, 08:35 SA Time – Crusaders vs Cheetahs
- 31 March 2012, 06:30 SA Time – Hurricanes vs Cheetahs, Westpac Stadium, Wellington
Cheetahs MUST get their rhytm back somehow against the Brumbies and Rebels. They can and should take these 2 sides out!
Then comes the difficult one against the Crusaders… but they have not been that flush either and should still be without Carter & McCaw.
Last one against the Hurricanes the Cheetahs could also bag, Canes are not good at present and was lucky against the Lions who played the wrong game against the Canes.
First two games should be a walk in the park, and two good games for the Cheetahs to get their competition back on track.
Both the Rebels and the Hurricanes can be beaten, the Brumbies might also be beaten. The VRYSTAAAAAAAT have beaten the Crusaders more than once,
Morning all,
Yes the Cheetahs need some answers quick. Funnily enough, the Cheetahs weren’t as poor, as some make out, the Bulls were just better by some margin (no doubt this will please GBS)
Imho the Cheetahs need to get Johnson back at 7, move vd Walt to 8, and hope Lappies is fit for the bench. Raubenheimer gets driven back way to easliy. maybe recalling Francois Uys as 8th man could also help. He is very physical compared to Raubenheimer. Coenie’s presence will also help. Contrary to what GBS believes, I think give Snyman and Ebersohn a chance to gel, they didn’t miss many tackles, more a case of the Bulls exposing space out wide with consumate ease. Brussow is not getting any support from his other forwards, and strauss is a man alone.
I wouldn’t mind a team sheet like this for the Brumbies:
Nyakane, Strauss, Coenie
Ferreira, vd Westhuizen
Brussow, Johnson, vd walt
van Zyl, Goosen
Jansen, Snyman, Ebersohn
Jacobs, Daniller
WP Nel, Liebenberg, Labuschagne, Earle, Tewis, Sias, le Roux
The Bulls in a nutsheel, made the Cheetahs look terrible! Not many teams would have contained them on Saturday.
4 @ Cheetah4eva:
The question remains… how did the Bulls manage to EXPOSE SPACE OUT WIDE?
The answer is clear and straight forward:
It’s about defence… and the Cheetahs like most teams nowadays, employed the drift defensive system.
Now with this system, the loosies push the opposing scrumhalf wide, the scrumhalf goes for and pushes the opposing flyhalf wide (running at his inside shoulder), the flyhalf starts pushing the opposition centres wide, the centres push the outside centre and the wings wide, the wings push the remaining wing material or the fullback who has joined the line wide and out… and the fullback and loosies cover as a second and third line of defence.
Wynand Olivier rounded Snyman like he was’nt even there, for Zane Kirchner’s first try… in fact he went between Snyman and Robert Ebersohn like none of those 2 were there…
Then there were 3 more outside back tries… exposing the space (FAILED DRIFT DEFENCE) out wide… PLUS a number of breaks which was stopped in time, not to result in tries.
So, surely the blame lies somewhere, if there was that much SPACE OUT WIDE (FAILED DRIFT DEFENCE) and 4 tries were scored by the Bulls wings and fullback.
The blame is clear…. defensive frailty of both Cheetahs centres as well as the Cheetahs wings…. which, once again, is nothing but FAILED DRIFT DEFENCE.
Fair enough, but it started by the Bulls totalling the Cheetahs off the ball, at the rucks, thus resulting in quick ball. The Bulls could attack, before the Cheetahs could line up in defence.
It was that good. You can analyse it all you want, but that is where it all went wrong. Scrums were even, lineouts were in favour of the Bulls, but as for what to do with the ball, the Cheetahs were tackled, and swamped, the Bulls were ruthlessly physical, and simply bullied the Cheetahs. No excuses there, we will bounce back though
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