Cheetahs coach Naka Drotske seems to have lost his patience with Sias Ebersohn by dropping him to the bench for the match against the Lions, opting instead to play a scrumhalf in the pivot jersey, with Tewis de Bruyn getting the nod.
Drotske, who has called on Nico Scheepers to do the goal kicking in an attempt to relieve Sias of any other pressure, seems to have made a decision to leave Sias on the bench until he finally leaves at the end of the year, to play for the Western Force in Super Rugby next year.
Other changes to the Cheetahs starting line-up see ex-retiree Hendro Scholtz coming into the starting line-up in place of Davon Raubenheimer and a return to action for lock Francois Uys, replacing Andries Ferreira.
Free State Cheetahs: 15 Hennie Daniller, 14 Nico Scheepers, 13 Robert Ebersohn (c), 12 Andries Strauss, 11 Raymond Rhule, 10 Tewis du Bruyn, 9 Sarel Pretorius, 8 Hendro Scholtz, 7 Lappies Labuschagne, 6 Heinrich Brussow, 5 Izak van der Westhuizen, 4 Francois Uys, 3 Marcel van der Merwe, 2 Hercu Liebenberg, 1 Schalk van der Merwe.
Subs: 16 Elandré Huggett, 17 Ross Geldenhuys, 18 Carl Wegner, 19 Davon Raubenheimer, 20 Sias Ebersohn, 21 Phillip Snyman, 22 Rayno Benjamin.
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Is Sias really that bad now? He was doing quite well in last year’s SR. What happened.
@JarsonX (Comment 1) : Johan Goosen happened.
@JarsonX (Comment 1) : goosen happened…
@JarsonX (Comment 1) : @vanmartin (Comment 2) : @Megatron (Comment 3) : Still, he played well against the Sharks… And there is no Goosen for them now….
@vanmartin (Comment 2) : @Megatron (Comment 3) : I know, but still he cant be that bad.
@JarsonX (Comment 5) : sias is a “confidence player” a bit petulent too, when he is favoured then he performs but as soon as competition comes along and he has to compete or sit on the bench he goes dikbek…it happened in the BabyBoks too when lionel cronje came through and wrestled the 10 jersey from him and ended up being the main FH and winning U21 Player of the Year.
@JarsonX (Comment 5) : He’s a capable flyhalf with an entitlement problem based on my reading between the lines and excerpts from interviews (subjective I realize). Sias definitely wasn’t happy with the idea of Goosen starting ahead of him. I suspect Drotske has a problem with his attitude – especially since he criticized the union in public after his move to the Western Force was announced.
Edit: What Megatron said.
@Megatron (Comment 6) : @vanmartin (Comment 7) :
Sad when a good player gets arrogant, I remember when he couldn’t even get into the starting lineup & how he always leaned on Robert. Robert refused to go anywhere without his brother, now it is a dump and run so to speak of?