Cheetahs coach Naka Drotske has handed former Valke pivot Riaan “True Blue” Smit the number 10 jersey ahead of his side’s clash against the Sharks this weekend.
Smit, who has been out of favour as a flyhalf since arriving in Bloemfontein a few seasons back, has been forced to make do with a handful appearances at wing and fullback, however, injury first-choice flyhalf Johan Goosen and a run of nightmarish form from stand-in Sias Ebersohn have seen the latter dropped to the bench for this weekend’s game.
Aside from the change at flyhalf, Drotske has kept faith in the balance of the side that narrowly went down against the Stormers at Newlands over the weekend.
Cheetahs: 15 Hennie Daniller, 14 Cameron Jacobs, 13 Robert Ebersohn, 12 Andries Strauss, 11 Willie le Roux, 10 Riaan Smit, 9 Piet van Zyl, 8 Philip van der Walt, 7 Justin Downey, 6 Heinrich Brussouw, 5 George Earle, 4 Izak van der Westhuizen, 3 WP Nel, 2 Adriaan Strauss (captain), 1 Coenie Oosthuizen
Substitutes: 16 Hercu Liebenberg, 17 Trevor Nyakane, 18 Andries Ferreira, 19 Ashley Johnson, 20 Tewis de Bruyn, 21 Sias Ebersohn, 22 Philip Snyman
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JPP and Mvovo against Le Roux and Jacobs…we need to target them there.
@JJR (Comment 1) : We will also have a better bench available so we need to use our subs wisely!
Man for man, we spoke them in every area except maybe 6, where Brussouw and Botes are evenly matched, the Bloem man taking it..
@Richard Ferguson (Comment 3) : in short, there’s simply no excuse for losing to these guys.
and yet we do…
Strange. If I were in Naka’s shoes I’d play Willie le Roux at 10.
@Richard Ferguson (Comment 3) :
Van Zyl ahead of Mcleod at the moment, Adriaan Strauss has been more consistent than Bissy most of the season, Robert Ebersohn not too bad either – tackling a bit suspect though, Ashley Johnson a useful sub probably shades Kanko on match fitness, Coenie probably shades Beast in general play at the moment – Beast still getting back to match fitness, Daniller probably close to evens with Ludick
@Bokhoring (Comment 6) : Le Roux can be very dangerous if you give him space. We cannot under-estimate these guys – they believe they can beat us, and they have proven it in the past time and again
@Bokhoring (Comment 6) :
Coenie shades Beast?
Your entire comment lost all my attention after you said that
@Bokhoring (Comment 6) : van Zyl ahead of McLeod any day.
@Richard Ferguson (Comment 8) : At the moment he does, but Beast is coming back in leaps and bounds.
@Richard Ferguson (Comment 8) : It’s a shame. Means you missed the last part with that new Ludick guy playing for us.
Anyway spelling aside, outside of Andries Strauss the rest of the back line miss tackles galore – so makes sense to take them on wide as much as possible
@Ben (Comment 9) : Agreed
@Bokhoring (Comment 12) : Willie le Roux is a great player but his defense isn’t that great. Let’s hope JPP sees some ball and exploits that.
@Ben (Comment 14) : Robert’s defence has also been suspect. Let’s hope Paul brings his afterburners!
Robert is at number 3 for missed tackles for the season. Has overtaken Willem Alberts and McLeod
@vanmartin (Comment 15) : Indeed.
I think the Ebersohn brothers might have a little side bet going on.
Hope we don’t underestimate these guys, it’s their home game and these guys will be fighting for survival, they fancy themselves against us and will seek to get points from this game, they surely don’t want to be Kings’ victims. This game means a lot to them, they will be fired up..
@Ben (Comment 18) : Perhaps they’re trying to get out of a contract?
@vanmartin (Comment 20) :
@JJR (Comment 1) : Oh, well spotted!
Mvovo to make Jacobs his bunny!
Their forwards ,especially back row are weak add to this that no one in their side (besides the two cousins) really are good defensively ,we should look to play a percentage game against these guys and dominate them with forward orientated rugby;
My team;
1.Beast
2.Bismarck
3.Jannie-
4.Sykes
5.Bresler
6.Deysel
7.Coetzee
8.Daniel(c)-Alberts/Botes either on bench for lf cover
Possible Sharks side:
Viljoen, JP, Jordaan, Whitehead ( c )
, Mvovo, Bosman, McLeod, Keegan, Deysel, Bresler, Sykes, Botes, Jannie, Bissie, Beast.
So we should have their number in the back except maybe at 9.
Our loose 3 shouldn`t have too many problems, I rate our locks higher oh the Front Row could be a problem.
@Talent (Comment 23) : Seriously? Deysel ahead of Botes?
@Talent (Comment 23) : Deysel is just too slow for an openside – you would need to swap him and Marcel around. By the time he arrives at the rucks, Coenie or Brussouw would already have burgled the ball
@Talent (Comment 23) : As a team they may be weak defensively, however they do have a couple of strong tacklers in the team – Versusco has Van der Walt at no 2 (171) and Brussouw at 7 (149) – Marcel fighting a lonely battle for the Sharks at 1 (188). They also have 2 players in top ten at defensive rucks (first 3)- Brussouw at 2 (144) and Coenie at 5 (109) – Bissy at 10 with 87
Andries at 12 is also a pretty good tackler
@Ben (Comment 25) : On form he doesn’t deserve it ,but I think having him in there will add some extra weight behind the ball that the cheetahs won’t be able to deal with ,we will out muscle them comprehensively . The Cheetahs pack is a weak point (4-8) are lightweights. Same thing we did against the Stormers a year or two ago, that’s my reasoning.
@Bokhoring (Comment 26) : Coenie faster than Deysel? The only time it matters when you are an openside flank is of set piece and coenie should be at the bottom of it. Any way not suggesting he plays openside .
@Bokhoring (Comment 27) : Ah ,k thanks for correcting me ,hadn’t got a look at the stats. You’re right they are weak defensively as a unit.
@Talent (Comment 28) : The only forward really making tight metres this year is Marcel – Daniel contributes some – his mostly in open play. The forwards have been much better defensively and hitting the rucks, but as a unit they create hardly any momentum for the team
I would rather try and hit them out wide where they are defensively weak, and for that would still include Botes to give us a very speedy trio
The only thing is Plum needs to tell McLeod the new 5 sec rule already applies to him