The Sharks travel to Bloemfontein on Sunday to play the Cheetahs in a European Challenge Cup match and a sub-plot is the home team’s never-ending desire to prove a point to governing body SA Rugby.
The Cheetahs and the Southern Kings were infamously kicked out of the PRO 14 competition that became the United Rugby Championship to make way for teams like the Sharks, Stormers, Bulls and Lions because they are not as financially flush as those teams.
The harsh boardroom decision initially left the Free Staters with the Currie Cup as the only competition in which to state their case but the oomph was taken out of that because the aforementioned teams fielded B teams.
The Cheetahs could only do their best and earlier this year they won the Currie Cup and, thankfully, they have been allowed into the second tier Challenge Cup through the back door.
Poor treatment
Incidentally, they were allowed to play in the last Challenge Cup but on the condition that they played their “home” fixtures at a European base. That is how badly the Cheetahs have been treated.
So, there is little wonder that the Cheetahs are looking forward to hosting a full-strength Sharks team on Sunday. Kick-off is at 3pm.
The Sharks were relegated from the Champions Cup to the Challenge Cup because they under-performed in the last URC and after struggling severely in this year’s URC, they are fielding their full complement of Springboks at every possible opportunity.
This means the Cheetahs can get a proper gauge of how they measure up against one of the big boys of the local game. Cheetahs coach Hawies Fourie cannot wait.
“It is a big challenge for us to play against a team with a lot of Springboks and the quality the Sharks have, but that’s why you want to play in a competition like this — to play against very good teams with big names to measure yourselves.”
As it turns out, last week the Cheetahs outplayed a Zebre team in Parma that recently beat the Sharks on the same ground, although the Durbanites did not have their Boks back at that point.
The Sharks had a resounding win last week against French club Pau and travel to Bloemfontein keen to gather momentum.
“We will have a look at that performance of the Sharks and see how we can adapt this week,” Fourie said.
“They’ve beaten Pau by a big margin and they’ve got all their Springboks back so they will be a very tough team to play on Sunday.”
Timeless Ruan Pienaar waiting in the wings
The Cheetahs have their own Springbok, of course, the 39-year-old Ruan Pienaar, and even though he played the last of his 88 Tests in 2015, the evergreen scrumhalf is as sharp as ever.
He scored 18 of his team’s points in their solid 33-15 defeat of the Italians.
“In any competition you play it is important to start well and we managed to do that in Parma and we need to replicate that start against the Sharks,” Fourie added.
“It was difficult to prepare for Zebre in Bloemfontein because of the difference in conditions, but I must compliment the players, they adapted well.
“Luckily for us it didn’t rain but even if it rained, I felt that we were well enough prepared to adapt and play according to the conditions.
“The forwards did a good job at set piece again, they dominated there and we defended well, putting a lot of pressure on them.
“We want to build on this against the Sharks.”
IOL Sport