The new Cheetah feature
JUST two years on from featuring in the Super Rugby play-offs, the Cheetahs look like a side that is in desperate need of help.
The team rugby fans like to call “their second favourites” because of their free-spirited, running brand of rugby, have endured a difficult season and are set to pick up the wooden spoon in South Africa.
They were comprehensively beaten by the Highlanders in Bloemfontein on Saturday, but more worrying is they looked like a team that wasn’t interested in even playing the game. It’s tough for any team to get themselves up and motivated at this late stage of the competition. They know all too well they’ve got nothing to play for.
In the next few weeks and months that might all change. The highly rated Franco Smith will, of course, take charge of the Cheetahs in the Currie Cup and then in Super Rugby from next season and he’ll take over a side that’s in desperate need of an overhaul.
While the retiring Naka Drotske achieved some wonderful things with the team, every team needs some freshening up every few years. New voices and faces can do wonders and the Cheetahs bosses will be hoping Smith can also make a difference.
It’s going to be a huge challenge though, as it is for any coach taking charge of the Cheetahs. The budget is small, so the coach can’t pick and choose who he wants and, let’s be honest, a young, rising star is unlikely to want to head to Bloemfontein when Durban and Cape Town are also options. It’s the same problem the Lions have had to deal with in the past.
While Grey College remains a feeder to the university and the Free State teams, nowadays many of the best young players coming out of Bloemfontein are being snapped up by the bigger, richer unions.
Injuries have hurt the Cheetahs this season, too, with many of their stalwarts missing several games, and again on Saturday they lost their captain Francois Uys just before the match. What it has revealed is that the quality of depth in the Cheetahs franchise is not nearly as good as it should be. And that’s not likely to change anytime soon.
Smith, though, will come in with some new ideas – he’s already said he’s keen on involving some of the unheralded Shimlas players in the Currie Cup – and hopefully get the Cheetahs winning more than they’re losing at the moment.