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Balie Swart to help the FS Cheetahs

───   19:26 Sat, 22 Aug 2015

Balie Swart to help the FS Cheetahs | News Article

Potchefstroom - The Toyota Free State Cheetahs claimed their first win of the season on Friday evening when they beat the Griquas with a hard fought and scrappy 31-9 win Kimberley.

The scoreline is somewhat deceptive with the Griquas taking the battle to the Cheetahs in the first half which saw the half-time score at 10-9 in favour of the Franco Smith’s team.

In the Cheetahs first three outings of the campaign, the scrum has been a cause for concern, with the defending champions Western Province and the Griquas bruising the Cheetahs in the setpiece over the past two weeks.

Although it is a negative especially after a marked improvement during the sides last Super Rugby game against the Bulls which they won 42-29 in Pretoria. 

On top of that, in their opening match of the Currie Cup, the scrum was the only real positive to take from their 57-19 drubbing at the hands of the Blue Bulls in Bloemfontein.

Coach Franco Smith conceded that it is a work in progress and remains adamant that their will regain their form in the department.

Smith told OFM Sport that at the end of the month, the team will be getting in some help in the form of World Cup winning prop, Ballie Swart.

“At scrum-time we are working on a new system that is probably used in Europe more and there is a lot of old habits that are still creeping in.

“But in time it will be sorted out.

“Balie Swart is coming here to see us on the 30th (August) and we will also get the referees point of view on it.

“So, that we’re working on it and that we’re wanting to become a scrum team is true.

Handling errors during the game in Kimberley also raised eyebrows, especially taking into account that it was a dry game and the sides was better at a wet and cold Newlands.

During the game the Griquas knocked on just four times, while the Cheetahs more than tripled that with 15 knocks and made 11 additional handling errors as opposed to the 7 by the home team.

Smith added that the he isn’t overly concerned and puts it down to the shear amount of possession the Cheetahs enjoyed in the derby game.

“I don’t think they are used to getting so many opportunities with the ball in hand.

“We’ve changed the way we want to play, we had a wet weather game and a game where we were under pressure so this is probably the first real outing with the ball in hand.

“Errors happen when you had the ball so often.

Before Swart arrives to help Daan Human and the side with the setpiece, the side will have to re-evaluate their performance from Cape Town in particular with Western Province playing in Bloemfontein next weekend.

Next week Friday’s fourth round clash at the Free State Stadium kicks off at 19:10.

Morgan Piek / OFM News

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