Rugby
Bloemfontein braced for tough clash─── 09:39 Fri, 15 Aug 2014
Morgan Piek
Bloemfontein - An interesting battle is expected tomorrow when the Toyota Free State Cheetahs host the Griquas in round two of the Currie Cup.
The men from Bloemfontein will be feeling more confident, taking into account their four game winning streak against their franchise neighbours.
The Griquas previous win in Bloemfontein, was a 28-18 win five years ago.
The Cheetahs have opted to unleash Elgar Watts in the number 10 jersey, with Willie du Plessis dropping to the bench.
Coach Rory Duncan feels Watts is the right man for the job tomorrow.
"I think Elgar has got a little more game time under his belt, Willie hadn't played for quite some time, I think his last game was in the Vodacom Cup before he entered this campaign, and we just think that as this stage, Elgar is possibly the better man for the job," said Duncan.
With Francois Brummer been knocking on the Cheetahs door in the Super Rugby for quite some time, they Griquas pivot will be looking to impress.
Duncan feels they know how to cope with Brummer who has become a more all-round flyhalf after he was regarded as a kicking flyhalf.
"He's a quality player and obviously went over the videos of Francois and I think we have a pretty good idea what to expect of him," Duncan added.
Home ground advantage in the Currie Cup has always been worth it's weight in gold and the Cheetahs will be biting at the champ to run out in front of their home supporters.
With a warm-up against the EP Kings in Craddock and their campaign opener away to the Pumas in Nelspruit behind them, the coach says the players are looking forward to playing on their own turf.
"It's going to nice for the guys to have a home game, they haven't played a game on this pitch together.
"It's always nice running our on your home ground and one thing I can tell you is the guys are fired up for this game, they obviously make right the mistakes they made against the Pumas and the guys are very keen," said Duncan on the home ground advantage.
Tomorrow afternoons untelevised match the Free State Stadium kicks off at 15:00.
Cheetahs - 15 AJ Coertzen, 14 Rayno Benjamin, 13 Francois Venter, 12 Joubert Engelbrecht, 11 Raymond Rhule, 10 Elgar Watts, 9 Sarel Pretorius, 8 Boom Prinsloo, 7 Jean Cook, 6 Tienie Burger, 5 Francois Uys, 4 Carl Wegner, 3 Luan de Bruin, 2 Torsten van Jaarsveld (captain), 1 Kevin Stevens.
Replacements - 16 AJ le Roux, 17 Dolph Botha, 18 Neil Claassen, 19 Waltie Vermeulen, 20 Shaun Venter, 21 Willie du Plessis, 22 JP du Plessis.
Griquas - 15 Nico Scheepers, 14 Edries Arendse, 13 PJ Vermeulen, 12 Wayne Stevens (captain), 11 Rocco Jansen, 10 Francois Brummer, 9 Tian Meyer, 8 Carel Greeff, 7 RJ Liebenberg, 6 Marnus Schoeman, 5 Jaco Nepgen, 4 Boela Serfontein, 3 Ewald Van Der Westhuizen, 2 Ryno Barnes, 1 Steph Roberts.
Replacements - 16 Martin Bezuidenhout, 17 Maks Van Dyk, 18 Hugo Kloppers, 19 Burger Schoeman, 20 Abrie Griesel, 21 Marais Schmidt, 22 Jonathan Francke.
