Sunday, July 08, 2007

MATCH REPORT: CHEETAHS v GRIQUAS

Again I was unable to attend because we celebrated my dad's 75th birthday - congrats dad- hope its another gOOde roundtrip around the sun for you and thanks for the life that you and me mum has given me!- but eish totally unaware of that family celebrations of Haus Orakel- the Cheetahs did rock up in a mOOd for playing the traditional Outback game stopped the "smaller" country couzins for making it "two victories in a row in one week over the incumbent CC Champions" :-))).

Back to me dad

He had the priviledge to meet Paul Roos, Danie Craven and an english speaking Bok captain from East London- whose name I just cannot remeber and I am not going to wake up the olde guy just for that at this hour. Still need to write something about that.

This match report is a copy & past job from www.rugby365.com

Cheetahs race away from Griquas
Saturday 07th July 2007

The Free State Cheetahs raced clear at the top of the Currie Cup standings when they outclassed Griquas 51-10 in their Round Three match in Bloemfontein on Saturday.

After holding a narrow 14-7 (two tries to one) lead at half-time, the Cheetahs simply upped the pace and intensity after the break and scored another five tries for their third successive full-house of log points.

In three games they have now scored 187 points and conceded just 24, scored 25 tries and conceded just two.

Griquas started out well, showing the form that saw them beat the Blue Bulls last week.

In the early stages the visitors from Kimberley defended superbly, running hard and taking the game to the Cheetahs.

The Cheetahs, at first taken aback by the ferocity of the Griquas onslaught, recovered to open the scoring in the 25th minute - with Marius Joubert slipping a tackle and sending a flying Jonathan Mokuena over for the five points.

It was inevitable that the game would turn though as the Cheetahs capitalized on the majority of possession they enjoyed.

Griquas simply couldn't build any momentum through their forwards and soon conceded the second try, as their defence fell apart and Heinrich Brussouw crashed over in the corner for the Cheetahs' second five-pointer.

Fly-half Willem de Waal had slotted both conversions and the Cheetahs were ahead 14-0 in the 33rd minute.

Griquas kept on trying gamely and a brilliant piece of opportunism saw fullback Zane Kirchener racing over after two Cheetahs backs - Philip Burger and Giscard Pieters, thinking Kirschner's kick ahead would go into touch - let the ball bounce. The fullback collected, raced clear and the cover was too late to stop him as he crashed over for what would be Griquas' only try of the afternoon.

Conrad Barnard's conversion made it 14-7 for the Cheetahs at the break.

The Griquas persistently ran at the Cheetahs, but a rock solid defensive line saw their efforts come to nothing at the end of the first half.

After the break the Cheetahs stepped up the pace, with Burger the spark.

It started with a a fine drop-goal just 29 seconds into the second half.

Griquas were not yet ready to give up the fight and some great pressure saw Marius Joubert in trouble and conceding a penalty - which Barnard slotted for what turned out to be the last points Griquas scored.

Soon afterwards Cheetahs coach Naka Drotské made two changes, bringing on Oliie le Roux and Darron Nell.

But it was that man Burger that sparked the rout, as he created space for himself in the centre with a neat chip and recovery. He then threw a great pass to hooker Richardt Strauss, who crashed over.

De Waal pushed the conversion wide, but redeemed himself in the 50th minute when he slotted a penalty to bring his side up to 25 points.

The Cheetahs' fourth try came soon after as Burger picked up the ball off the back of the scrum, turned on the gas and slipped through to dot down with a typical Burger-sommersault at the posts. De Waal made no mistakes, 32-10 .

The Cheetahs continued to dominate, not allowing the Griquas anything at the breakdown and controlling both the scrums and line-outs. The efforts of the forwards certainly paid off as their backs kept the Griquas on the back foot constantly.

The Cheetah simply could not be stopped though and after MJ Mentz was sent off the Cheetahs took the opportunity to score another three tries in the last 11 minutes to go past 50 points and complete the rout.

Man of the match: You can look at a number of the Cheetahs and even one or two Griquas players, but our award goes to the flying Cheetahs fullback Philip Burger - who sparked the Cheetahs' rout and created a number of their scoring opportunities, along with a great score of his own.

The scorers:

For the Free State Cheetahs:
Tries: Mokuena, Brüssow 2, Strauss, Burger, De Bruyn, Hollenbach
Cons: De Waal 3, De Bruyn 2
Pen: De Waal
DG: Burger

For Griquas:
Try: Kirchener
Con: Barnard
Pen: Barnard

Yellow card: MJ Mentz (Griquas, 71 - professional foul, playing player without the ball)

Teams:

Free State Cheetahs: 15 Philip Burger, 14 Giscard Pieters, 13 Marius Joubert, 12 Hendrik Meyer, 11 Gavin Passens, 10 Willem de Waal, 9 Falie Oelschig, 8 Jonathan Mokuena, 7 Duanne Vermeulen, 6 Heinrich Brüssow, 5 Corniel van Zyl, 4 Rory Duncan, 3 Kobus Calldo, 2 Richardt Strauss, 1 Wian du Preez.
Replacements: 16 Hercu Liebenberg, 17 Ollie le Roux, 18 David de Villiers, 19 Darron Nell, 20 Tewis de Bruyn, 21 Meyer Bosman, 22 Alwyn Hollenbach.

Griquas: 15 Zane Kirchener, 14 Baldwin McBean, 13 Ronnie Cooke, 12 Danie de Beer, 11 MJ Mentz, 10 Conrad Barnard, 9 Tobie Botes, 8 Frans Viljoen, 7 Gareth Krause (c), 6 Jacques Burger, 5 Brendon Snyman, 4 Ockie van Zyl, 3 Eugene van Staden, 2 Hans van Dyk, 1 Regardt Dreyer.
Replacements: 16 Louwtjie Louw, 17 Bees Roux, 18 Cilliers Coetzer/Evan Botha, 19 Wayne van Heerden, 20 Eben Olivier, 21 Tiger Mangweni/Darryl Coeries, 22 Lafras Uys.

Referee: JC Fortuin (SARU)
Touch judges: Pro Legoete (SARU), Fakumile Yamile (Eastern Province)
Television match official: Johann Meuwesen (Eastern Province)
Assessor: Lusanda Menze

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