Cheetahs’ inexperience exposed
ONE MAN DOWN: Joubert Engelbrecht of the Cheetahs is tackled during yesterday’s Super Rugby encounter against the Brumbies
in Bloemfontein IT WAS like adding a spoon of sugar to their mug of mud when the Cheetahs converted a last-minute penalty to salvage a losing Super Rugby bonus point here yesterday.
It proved a frustrating afternoon against a side that played marginally more like a team, but that isn’t saying a lot for this was an error-strewn match.
If the Jake White playbook is less evident in the Brumbies of today, the disciplines he accentuates still is.
At the advent of Super Rugby they were the off-cuts from Australia’s franchises so historically it has been out of necessity that the Brumbies add up to more than the sum of their parts.
They dug deep yesterday after their franchise this week was dumped into imbroglio. Their chief executive warned of foreclosure if the franchise was not placed on the path to financial health. He was suspended but a court ruled he be reinstated.
“There was good focus from the boys this week. There has been a bit of turmoil back home. Internally we just had 100% focus on the game. We came off a defeat in Cape Town. It has been a gutsy effort from the boys,” beamed coach Stephen Larkham.
As a collective yesterday they had more going for them against a team that continues to play in fits and starts. Cheetahs coach Franco Smith again lamented the soft moments that blighted his team’s performances but he is keeping his chin up despite the recidivism.
“I think there is progress. This team must be compared to previous Cheetahs teams. We all want results but it is going to take time. If you want results now you need to get into the queue because we want it first,” said Smith.
Fact is the Cheetahs fell to their fourth defeat from five matches yesterday. Alarmingly, it now includes three home reverses.
They struggled to get a foothold in this match and the brief shower before the break was hardly to blame. They were skinned at the ruck by man of the match David Pocock with the Brumbies’ most willing workhorse Scott Fardy not far behind.
The Cheetahs vacillated between mediocre and magnificent in the scrum, a theme that paradoxically has been a constant to their season. Yesterday the early second half introduction of front rankers Charles Marais and Maks van Dyk helped swing the scrum in the Cheetahs’ favour.
They also looked more assured in the lineout where Francois Uys put in another honest shift, but with the other parts of the Cheetahs ball-winning endeavours in disrepair their game could
As a collective, the visitors had more going for them against a team that play in fits and starts
hardly shift higher than third gear.
It took the hosts almost quarter of an hour before they strung together meaningful passages of play in possession but by then the Brumbies were already 10 points to the good.
It is a pursuit which doesn’t exactly tally with coach Smith’s mantra of spread the ball and thereby the gospel, but by deploying the rolling maul the Cheetahs did all too fleetingly create a platform from which they looked menacing.
The Brumbies, to be fair, were hardly in full gallop and their momentum was also stunted by referee Glen Jackson, who awarded 14 penalties by the time the curtain dropped on the first half.
Sergeal Petersen operating in concert with Clayton Blommetjies scored a gem of a try in the closing minutes but by then the Brumbies had bolted.