Mohoje’s Pro14 campaign lasted just 18 minutes last season when he injured his knee against Munster at Thomond Park in the opening match of the tournament.

Mohoje told OFM Sport that will players like Abongile Nonkontwana and Junior Pokomela around he will have to earn the right to play.

“As time goes by it does get harder and I do have a lot of catching up to do.

“I am in touch with my reality. What I’ve got to do is train hard and impress the coaches again and hopefully earn my place in the team.

“It is not going to be easy by any means, Junior and Abongile, have both played extremely well during the past Pro14, so it will definitely be a good fight to come back.”

Mohoje added that being in the position to have a preseason will give them as a team a better opportunity to hit the ground running when the worlds toughest domestic competition kicks off in July.

“This is the first time in about three years that we’ve had a preseason. We’ve really been looking forward to it.

“We are looking forward to learning from it, and it was a good start on Monday.

“It is only going to get harder from here, but our mindsets are set on having a good preseason in order for us to have a good Currie Cup campaign.”

The Currie Cup and the Pro14 not overlapping is also a big deal for the Cheetahs. This will allow the franchise to cut some of the excess players to reduce the squad, and this in itself will make things a lot more competitive within the team.

Mohoje says that being able to field their best possible sides week-in, week-out will also serve them well.

“Our biggest disadvantage last season was that our tournaments overlapped.

“We found ourselves in a very difficult situation, but now there’s a good gap between the two leagues, and now were are in a position whereby we will be able to play with our strongest side.

“We are very excited about that. We will be given ourselves the best possible opportunity to win the tournament.

“We are very grateful that it not like last season where we struggled and us players weren’t happy. Now we will once again be looking to make the Free State, South Africa and our sponsors proud.”

The Free State Cheetahs face the Blue Bulls at Loftus Versfeld on 19 July in their opening match of the Currie Cup.

@MorganPiek OFM Sport