Doubts affect Cheetah’s play
THE Cheetahs are feeling the pressure of not knowing whether they have a Super Rugby future and it played a role in their 38-30 defeat to the Sharks on Saturday in Bloemfontein.
This candid admission was made by Cheetahs coach Franco Smith after his charges held a 20-15 lead at the break but could not keep up with the Sharks’ increased and improved physicality in the second half.
“There’s a lot of pressure and some of it is forced by the question of the franchise‚” Smith said.
“Some of it is from the outside and that’s something we can’t control and the guys don’t want to disappoint.
:We made errors we hardly make. We played not to lose when we had the lead and that’s a big thing. There’s a lot of pressure on us and there’s a lot of talk about this franchise thing.
“We don’t want to disappoint at home. You want to perform for the crowd and the players were reactive‚” Smith said.
“We merit to stay in this competition and the whole of the central part of South Africa merits this franchise.
“I think we need to forget about what happened in this game and prove that we’re a good team,” the coach continued.
“I know outside influences have played a role in how we’ve played. It’s tough but we know we have to deal with it. Hopefully a decision will be made soon.”
Merit isn’t a term that resonates very well with governing body Sanzaar but Smith said it needs to be the criteria when a decision is taken on which teams will get to keep their Super Rugby status.
The Cheetahs haven’t always done justice to the talent that comes out of its feeder region, but their finances and the unattractive location means players almost always opt for greener pastures.
At times in the past, they have been shambolic‚ aside from the 2013 season when they made the play-offs and lost narrowly to the Brumbies in Canberra.
From an on-field perspective‚ they can be considered better than some of the Australian franchises that came into existence after them.
“Twenty months ago‚ we started up a plan of becoming a sustainable Super Rugby franchise. We’ve been putting out some good performances and now we find ourselves under pressure,” Smith said.
“We are going to fight that because we need to keep every Cheetahs supporter happy and give them the best chance to be part of this.
“I know how much the doubt of this is impacting on us.
“We can look back on this loss and say the reason why things were the way they were, was because of things that were far beyond our control.
“We just need to play as well as we can‚ continue with the brand of rugby that we’re trying to play and leave our hearts on the field.”