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Cheetahs: What a glorious bunch

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Cheetahs coach Franco Smith. (Picture supplied)
Cheetahs coach Franco Smith. (Picture supplied)

Bloemfontein - In explaining his headache of selecting the team to front the defending champions, Lions, for the Currie Cup semifinal on Saturday, Cheetahs coach Franco Smith made a detour to sing winger Sergeal Petersen’s praises.

Petersen has been injured for a fair bit of the campaign, but Smith said he’d nevertheless selected him ahead of the in-form Ryno Benjamin because he was the “kind of player who was capable of doing something special”.

Boy, was he vindicated by the former EP Kings man, who with fly half Niel Marais dominated proceedings in a game that ended up being a six tries to three rout for the Cheetahs – a side still unbeaten in their inexorable march to the final.

Petersen was simply everywhere, a livewire who scored a hat-trick and had a hand in number eight Neill Jordaan’s try just after halftime.

All intoxicating sidesteps and fleetness of foot and mind, Petersen’s first try, in the 15th minute, was the result of awareness and work rate as he received the ball on the loop from Uzair Cassiem and rounded the defence to score.

His second try showcased the pace he’s always been known for, outstripping the defence in chasing down Reniel Hugo’s kick ahead from Fabian Booysen’s knock-on in the Cheetahs’ 22 and dribbling the ball before flopping over it.

A destructive first half, in which the Cheetahs were simply on another planet compared to the Lions, had set up the eventual victory.

Franco Smith’s men sought to take the half-gap and offload the ball quickly through the phases if the movement broke down.

They also showed the requisite steeliness in contact...their frequent forays over the advantage line being the result of dominating in the collisions.

The pressure soon told on the Lions, who got the timing wrong on their plan to nullify the Cheetahs’ attacking threat by rush defence.

Three times in the first half, Rohan Janse van Rensburg, Fabian Booysen and Cyle Brink – the latter being sin-binned for too many rapid-fire penalties by the visitors – got their wires crossed and strayed offside.

All of this was right in front of poles, which didn’t help as Cheetahs fly half Neil Marais’s kicking GPS was on point as he nailed all of his kicks at goal (eight) for a personal haul of 22 points in the game.

By contrast, the Cheetahs were unforgiving in defence, with the unlikely figure of Raymond Rhule leading the charge.

Often chided for his lax approach to putting his body on the line, Rhule set the tone with a monster hit on Lions fullback Andries Coetzee and never let up as he chased down anyone in red as if they were making off with his wallet.

For their part, the Lions committed the three basic sins in rugby: giving away too many penalties, not playing enough rugby in the opposition half, and making unforced errors when the few opportunities came their way.

There was a brief flutter in the second half with replacement wing Sylvian Mahuza scoring twice and Ruaan Lerm also dotting down as the bench came on, and the Cheetahs losing Benjamin and Paul Schoeman to the sin bin.

But replies by Benjamin and Clayton Blommetjies confirmed they’d left themselves too much to do from the first half.

It was a tough old way to lose a title gloriously won last year, but the Lions couldn’t have lost it to a more glorious bunch in the Cheetahs.

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