Rugby
De Wet starts at flyhalf against the Pumas─── 11:41 Wed, 03 Sep 2014
A tough battle awaits the Toyota Free State Cheetahs this weekend in the Currie Cup 5th round, when they face the Pumas.
The men from the Lowveld will be coming to the City of Roses with boosted ego following their impressive 32-22 win over the defending champions, the Sharks.
The Pumas have lost just one match thus far, and this came against the very same Sharks who were made to work hard in Durban for the 34-17 win.
The Free State have made changes in the backline for their Currie Cup 5th round clash against the Pumas in Bloemfontein.
The most notable change sees the sides third flyhalf in their campaign with Pieter-Steyn de Wet making his run on debut for the side.
De Wet, made his debut last week off the bench when he came on to replace Willie du Plessis during the sides 36-25 win over the Griquas in Kimberley.
Coach Rory Duncan feels the Caledon-born player impressed just his short showing in against the Peacock Blues.
“He came on for us last week and he had a fantastic game,” said Duncan.
“There’s nothing wrong with Willie’s game, but the ways Pieter-Steyn plays suites the way we want to play,” Duncan added.
The second change sees former Melbourne Rebels centre, JP du Plessis get a starting role in the place of Joubert Engelbrecht. The move sees vice-captain Francois Venter slot back into his more familiar role at inside centre.
“I saw playing 13 as a challenge, but it’s a nice challenge, because if you want to play at a higher level you must be able to play at 12 and 13,” said Venter.
“When you go into the game, it’s actually just a number on your back. The first phase you start a 13, but from there you just play rugby, I just want to be use to help the team win,” Venter added about playing at outside centre in the first four matches of the campaign.
Saturday’s match at the Free State Stadium kicks off at 15:00.
Free State Cheetahs - 15 Clayton Blommetjies, 14 Rayno Benjamin,13 JP du Plessis, 12 Francois Venter, 11 Raymond Rhule, 10 Pieter-Steyn de Wet, 9 Sarel Pretorius, 8 Jean Cook, 7 Neil Claassen, 6 Tienie Burger, 5 Francois Uys, 4 Henco Venter, 3 Rudolph Botha, 2 Torsten van Jaarsveld (c), 1 Kevin Stevens.
Replacements - 16 AJ le Roux, 17 George Marich, 18 Werner Lourens, 19 Vincent Jobo, 20 Shaun Venter, 21 Willie du Plessis, 22 Joubert Engelbrecht.
Morgan Piek /OFM News
