Free State on the rugby rise

THE Toyota Free State XV’s comprehensive win (56-31) against the Down Touch Griffons in their first SuperSport Rugby Challenge game last weekend will have come as a relief to their new coaches.

Having begun the Rugby Challenge’s inaugural season with one loss after another, which led to them needing to edge out the Border Bulldogs by a solitary points difference point to make it into the quarter finals, it’s safe to say theirs wasn’t a great season as a franchise-linked team.

The victory against the Griffons also came after an opening weekend bye, which can be a relative doubleedged sword for teams of either having more time to prepare or leaving them a little underdone for opponents who’ve had the opportunity to rid themselves of off-season rust.

Former Cheetahs, Griffons and Edinburgh lock Izak van der Westhuizen, who is cutting his teeth as the forwards coach for the Rugby Challenge after recently being forced to retire due to concussion at 32 (forward thinking on his part, he quips), says they were pleased for a couple of reasons.

“We’ve had a good start against the Griffons, so it’s something we can build on for the competition after last year,” he said.

“Our players have had it quite tough in a way because while it has been a long pre-season for some, others haven’t had one because we’ve been involved in the Pro 14.”

The last time the Cheetahs’ extended first class squad had a preseason would have been in 2016, when they were preparing for a 2017 Super Rugby season at the end of which they would be relegated just in time to join the Pro 14 competition.

Indeed, the treadmill of being involved in Super Rugby, Currie Cup, Pro 14 and the Rugby Challenge has worked its way down throughout the squad system.

The reason Van der Westhuizen did this interview instead of new Rugby Challenge head coach Daan Human was because the latter was in Wales with the Cheetahs for the Pro 14 semifinal qualifier against the Scarlets today (sat).

“He’s still the scrum coach of the Pro 14 team so we thought we’d throw everything into the Pro 14 semifinal qualifier against the Scarlets,” explained Van der Westhuizen. “Coach (Director of Rugby) Franco (Smith) is stepping in for this week.”

As stretched as they are – they, too, had to wait for their Varsity Cup players to join them just a week before the Rugby Challenge began – they have had time to work on the many things which went wrong.

“We spent a long time on general play, things like ball retention and getting better defensively to give us a chance to steal ball.”

Van der Westhuizen said there were a few players the Free State XV coaches were excited about, with centres Ali Mgijima and former Tafel Lager Griquas defector Tertius Kruger at the top of that list. —