Cheetahs do Durban lads a huge favour
THE Cheetahs have done little right this season but last night they did the Sharks, SA’s main hope for Super 15 glory, a huge favour by beating the Brumbies.
In Christchurch, the Sharks would have woken up at 5am today to watch this game — it’s bearing on the overall log could not be understated to them.
Their heroic win over the Crusaders earlier yesterday was capped beautifully by the Cheetahs’ surprise win, which helped the Sharks reopen their five-point gap on the Australians.
Two tries in four minutes at the start of the second half snatched the game from the visitors, who have a tough trip to Loftus to face the Bulls on Saturday. First Willie le Roux finished off a bewildering setpiece move in the corner — after Shaun Venter and Heinrich Brussow combined well at the tail of a lineout — then Johan Goosen stole the match with another try in the corner.
Brussow, despite being sent to the bin with eight minutes to go and a 10-point lead to protect, had another of his trademark menacing games. He broke through tackles, supported the runners well and thrived in the grey area between lawlessness and enterprise at the breakdown — before his luck ran out with the referee.
Goosen also had one of his better games in a long time. Coach Naka Drotske needed fresh legs in the backline but he couldn’t take him off, so he sent Goosen to fullback in Hennie Daniller’s place and Elgar Watts at flyhalf.
He, in turn, repaid the coach with 22 points including a 52m drop goal that took the score from a tense 24-21, to a comfortable 27-21 right at the death.
The Brumbies thought they could steal the game with five minutes left when hooker Stephen Moore touched down from a maul to bring them to within three points on the scoreboard. But they hadn’t accounted for Goosen’s long boot.
There’s been little to cheer in Bloemfontein this year. Even the pre-match Harley-Davidson parade seemed a chore to the
Two tries in four minutes at the start of the second half snatched the game away
riders and fewer and fewer people have braved the cold.
The home side started as if they would warm everybody up by getting into their motoring game plan straight away.
Bursting runs by Brussow and Strauss started the ignition but poor finishing and poor handling at the business end led to little reward for a good start.
They missed Sarel Pretorius badly in the finishing of moves.
Goosen put three penalties through the sticks to give the Cheetahs something to take into the break but the Brumbies responded with a Robbie Coleman try and two penalties.
White was the creator, Coleman the finisher. The scrumhalf took to the Cheetahs backline at a crab-like angle before putting through a grubber that Coleman collected with ease.
The home side did enough to take the game away from the Brumbies in the end.