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Cheetahs confident in their prep

───   MORGAN PIEK 15:16 Thu, 14 Feb 2019

Cheetahs confident in their prep | News Article
Shaun Venter - Morgan Piek

Good weather is expected in Galway this weekend for the Guinness Pro14 clash between Connacht and the Toyota Cheetahs.


The Cheetahs arrived in Ireland this morning for their three-week tour which also includes games against Scarlets and the champions, Leinster.

The rain in Bloemfontein ahead of the Cheetahs departure has helped the teams’ preparations, however, the coach Franco Smith, told OFM Sport that the conditions won’t be a concern of the team.

“Fortunately the way this pitch (Toyota Stadium) has been watered before games has made it a heavy pitch the whole year.

“This has basically made that we’ve played on a softer pitch in all of our home games throughout the season.

“From a physical point of view, we are quite prepared for that.

“I agree that it will be different if we train on soft grass. That is the reason why we completed all of the training in Bloemfontein.

“We will be staying in Cardiff next week and there we will be training on a G4-pitch in preparation for the Scarlets game.

“For the match against Leinster in Dublin, we will also be training on a G4-pitch.

“Through this, we will more or less maintain the surface that we train on. It is all about the quality, the quickness and the rapidness of it. It won’t not slow, heavy and put a lot of strain on the groin area.

“We are excited and confident that our prep will be fine, and on the game day, it doesn’t really matter. We can just adapt to whatever we get.”

The Cheetahs will only part take in a gym session on Thursday and on Friday afternoon they will complete the usual captain’s run before the match on Saturday.

Saturday evenings’ game at the Sportsground in Galway kicks off at 19:30.

Possible Toyota Cheetahs team – 15 Tapiwe Mafura / Louis Fouché, 14 William Small-Smith, 13 Dries Swanepoel, 12 Nico Lee, 11 Rabz Maxwane, 10 Tian Schoeman, 9 Shaun Venter (captain), 8 Gerhard Olivier, 7 Abongile Nonkontwana, 6 Junior Pokomela, 5 JP du Preez, 4 Walt Steenkamp, 3 Aranos Coetzee, 2 Marnus van der Merwe / Reinach Venter, 1 Ox Nche.

Replacements – 16 Jacques du Toit, 17 Charles Marais, 18 Luan de Bruin, 19 Sintu Manjezi, 20 Jasper Wiese, 21 Henco Venter, 22 Tian Meyer, Louis Fouché / Tapiwe Mafura.

@MorganPiek OFM Sport

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