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Cheetahs need to box smart in Europe

───   MORGAN PIEK 14:52 Wed, 23 Oct 2019

Cheetahs need to box smart in Europe | News Article
Sintu Manjezi - Morgan Piek

The Toyota Cheetahs arrived in Dublin on Wednesday for their first Guinness PRO14 tour of the 2019/20 season.


The Cheetahs will play Connacht this weekend but will be based in Dublin and only travel to Galway on Saturday morning.

The Cheetahs head into the match unbeaten, and with some new coaching staff in the form of Hawies Fourie (head coach) and Melusi Mthethwa (backline coach), while Connacht earned good wins over Benetton and the Dragons in their last two outings in the PRO14. The

The Cheetahs captain, Ruan Pienaar, told OFM Sport that it’s not easy playing Galway, but they are confident in their ability.

“It is a tough place to go to,” said the former Springbok halfback.

“Weather-wise it will be challenging. We have had great conditions so far, and that is something that we will have to get used to and has been a topic for discussion.

“We can back our skillset and still try and play the brand that we need to play in order to put teams under pressure.

“With new coaching staff coming in we have put measures in place to help us cope as best possible.

“Connacht is a really good team. They haven’t lost a lot of players to the World Cup duty. They have got continuity in their selection and they have started the season off well.

“It will be a big challenge, but that is why we play and that is what a tour is for. You’ve got to challenge yourself against the best. It will be a tough one to first up but we are looking forward to getting started.”

At this stage, the weather forecast suggests that it will be 7°C when the game kicks off, but dry weather is predicted.

While the Fourie has not ruled out the possibility of the Cheetahs playing their natural game, he did emphasise the importance of adapting to what will be needed in Europe. The tactician indicated that being smarter behind their own 10m line and a good kicking game will be key.

“There is not much to improve on, but it's more a case of focusing on something else. When we play in the Northern Hemisphere it is important to have a very good kicking game. That is something we didn’t focus on during our home games.

“With the home games, we tried to run the opposition ragged and tried to use the altitude to our advantage. We will have to have a very good kicking game. That is the difference in the focus between our home games and the tour.”

Fourie will announce his side for the important clash on Friday afternoon at 13:00. Barring injuries in training, it is expected that Fourie will opt for a largely unchanged team. Aranos Coetzee will be sure to start at tighthead prop, Jasper Wiese at eighth-man, and Wilmar Arnoldi is expected to be on debut off the bench.

Saturday’s game between Connacht and the Cheetahs at the Sportsground in Galway kicks off at 18:15.

@MorganPiek OFM Sport

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