Before the game at the Toyota Stadium, the Cheetahs had lost five games and drew one in the Guinness Pro14, and lost all six of their games in the Currie Cup.

Earlier in the week, the Cheetahs coach Franco Smith promised that we would witness a new look team, and they sure did deliver.

The hosts opened the scoring as soon as the 8th minute of the encounter when the captain Shaun Venter dotted down for a converted try.

Three minutes later Cheetahs doubled the lead when the tournament's leading scorer, Rabz Maxwane, ran in for his sixth try of the tournament. The flyhalf, Tian Schoeman, made no mistake in landing his second conversion of the match.

In the 22nd minute the Cardiff flyhalf, Steve Shingler, sent an easy penalty through the uprights to get the visitors on the board.

Just before the half time break the former Griquas lock, Sintu Manjezi, took to the park as a blood replacement for Walt Steenkamp and made his mark within one minute of making his Cheetahs debut. Cardiff were on the attack on the Cheetahs line with a lineout drive, however, the new man managed to enforce a turnover which lead to Venter breaking away with the ball and sending Maxwane over for his second try of the match.

This saw the Cheetahs leading 21-3 at the break. It was also the last time that the Cheetahs would score in the game.

The only score in the second stanza was with 15 minutes remaining on the clock when Blues replacement loose-forward, Samu Manoa, charged dot a clearance kick by Schoeman, and he managed to with the race to the line for the try, which was converted by Shingler.

The Cheetahs will be happy that they finally got the monkey off of their backs, however, they will not be happy with the number of penalties they conceded in the game, and the amount of missed opportunities, which saw them missing out on a valuable bonus point.

The Cheetahs' next mission is to survive the Currie Cup promotion-relegation match against the South Western Districts Eagles on Tuesday evening. The Cheetahs coach, Franco Smith, once again confirmed that he will be fielding his strongest possible team for the crunch game. However, Walt Steenkamp, Sintu Manjezi and Rhyno Smith are ineligible for the game as they were contracted by other unions.

Tuesday evening’s game between the Cheetahs and Eagles at the Toyota Stadium kicks off at 18:00.

Scorers:

Toyota Cheetahs: Tries – Shaun Venter, Rabz Maxwane 2 Conv. – Tian Schoeman 3.

Cardiff Blues: Tries – Samu Manoa Conv. – Steve Shingler Pen. - Shingler.

@MorganPiek OFM Sport