Cheetahs face a crucial week

The Cheetahs will look to produce a more clinical performance when they take on French side Oyonnax in their next Challenge Cup match in France this weekend.

Hawies Fourie’s team will travel to France from Amsterdam tomorrow after going down 33-20 against French side Pau on Sunday, a result that has set the Bloemfontein-side back in their quest to make the knockout stages of the competition.

The Cheetahs beat Pau twice in the 2022/23 season, but came unstuck in their home game in the Netherlands after making several handling errors and giving away a plethora of penalties. They went 14-0 behind early on and couldn’t quite get back into the match.

“It’s disappointing,” said Fourie (above). “We made too many mistakes…we lost ball in contact and we gave away too many penalties as well. We’re simply going to have to sharpen up ahead of our next match, because we created enough try-scoring chances.”

Both teams scored three tries, but Pau slotted four penalties to the one by the Cheetahs.

“We’ve made the road to where we want to be (in this competition) a little more difficult, but we’re still in it,” added the coach.

The Cheetahs will hope to be better acclimatised this week after arriving in Amsterdam last week where the temperature was minus seven degrees Celsius, compared to the 30 degrees Celsiup in Bloemfontein.

“It’s a big factor adjusting to the conditions,” said Fourie. “It’s not easy, but it’s also not an excuse…we created enough chances to win the game.

“Now we simply have to adapt and re-focus and look to our next match (against Oyonnax).”

The French side could be there for the taking, after also travelling early this week. They played against the Sharks in Durban on Saturday and copped a 38-7 hiding by Lukhanyo Am’s men.

The Top 14 team are yet to win a game in the Challenge Cup and are rooted to the bottom of the points table with one point from three matches, while the Cheetahs are second (behind the Sharks) with nine points.

The Cheetahs previously beat the Sharks 32-29 and Zebre Parma 33-15 to open their challenge in the second-tier European club competition.

The only injury concern ahead of the match against Oyonnax is that of outside back Cohen Jasper, who injured an ankle against Pau.