Johannesburg — The Free State Cheetahs enhanced their credentials as Currie Cup championship contenders with a victory over Western Province that was not always clinical, but which certainly a championship-winning effort any team worth their salt should win.
It did not start out that way, however, in Bloemfontein on Wednesday afternoon.
The Cheetahs were under the cosh in the initial 10 minutes, with both Angelo Davids and Sergeal Petersen of the WP crossing the whitewash, only to be denied by referee Cwengile Jadezweni. Kade Wolhuter eventually launched a massive 60m kick to open the scoring for WP in the 16th minute after a scrappy period of play, but any hope that it would settle some nerves or create rhythm and structure was soon forgotten.
The visitors certainly enjoyed the better passage of play, but neither side could string attacking phases together, nor build sustained pressure, endeavoring instead to play a helter-skelter game that see-sawed between the two 22s to the detriment of the quality of the match.
In their rush, both teams’ dropped passes; unforced errors abound; the 50/50s didn’t go to hand; the breakdown was a mess; while there were some wild decisions in contact and broken play that fractured the game as a spectacle. Patience was the biggest victim.
The WP did enjoy a semblance of supremacy in the scrum, but any set-piece victory there seemed to be always followed by a silly mistake that halted their momentum. Overall, neither team possessed the clinical edge to finish their opportunities in the first half.
At times it was a comedy of errors.
Clearly WP were a XV of desperate men, while the Cheetahs opted to just go with the flow. The encounter, then, needed someone to step up to the plate and grab the game by the scruff of the neck.
And that someone was Frans Steyn.
At times during the first half, the Springbok and veteran centre burst through the midfield with powerful runs and it was he who sparked the hosts truly into life in the second stanza.
One such run by the Bok in the 46th minute created the first try-scoring opportunity for the Cheetahs. It resulted in captain Ruan Pienaar sticking a kick in the corner and from the resultant line-out, hooker Marnus van der Merwe driving over the line.
The WP nearly struck back moments later but a forward pass to Petersen with no defence in-front of him, again denied the Cape-based side. Another bull-dozing run from Steyn followed, resulting in a carbon-copy outcome: Pienaar sticking it into the corner, the Cheetahs winning their line-out, but this time flank Gideon van der Merwe mauling it over the line.
Adding to this woe, was the fact that the dominance WP had enjoyed at scrum time simply disappeared in the second half as the Cheetahs turned the screw in that particular set-piece. The scrum, nevertheless, was mostly a cluster of incomplete restarts, while WP were by far their own worst enemies in other areas of the game.
An extraordinary passage of play followed hereafter, with Rosko Specman KO’d, play moving from one-side of the field to the other, before a full field attack by the WP ended with Angelo Davids diving over the line into the corner.
An exciting final 10 minutes was on the cards, but a yellow card to WP flank Nama Xaba arguably ended their fragmented efforts, the Cheetahs running out comfortable winners in the end to remain unbeaten in the tournament.
Scorers
Free State Cheetahs (0) 24: Tries: M van der Merwe, G van der Merwe, Fortuin; Conversions: Pienaar (3); Penalties: Pienaar
Western Province (3) 17: Tries: Davids, Smit; Conversion: Wolhuter; Penalties: Wolhuter; Yellow Card: Xaba
IOL Sport