It has never been a secret that the Cheetahs have long been one of the franchises with one of the smallest budgets in South Africa.

A fortnight ago, Cheetahs coach, Hawies Fourie, confirmed that he will be using at least ten players less than normal, however, it is a matter of contracting smarter.

He has already shown his hand by contracting the two-time World Cup winner, Frans Steyn, on a two-year deal.

Just last week, England coach, Eddie Jones, predicted the global Covid-19 pandemic will change the face of rugby as we know it worldwide. Jones suggested that squads will be smaller, players will have to be more versatile and that technical staff will need to be able to learn more skills. He suggested that wingers will have to be able to play on the flank, coaches will have to be able to coach across the spectrum and even physios will have to be able to do conditioning.

In a player like Steyn, Fourie has this versatile player who can slot in comfortably at flyhalf, centre, fullback and even the wing. The current captain of the Cheetahs, Ruan Pienaar, is another one of these players. Pienaar is a natural backline player who is known as scrumhalf but has played international rugby in the number nine jersey as well as at flyhalf, fullback and on the wing.

The hooker, Marnus van der Merwe, who missed the most of the season due to an injury is a perfect example of a versatile player upfront. He is equally comfortable on the side of the scrum.

It will most certainly not come as a surprise if Fourie opts to secure the signature of these kinds of players in the coming months to fill up his squad.

In an online interview with rugby scribe, Brenden Nel, Fourie said that he is confident that they will be able to manage with a smaller but more experienced squad.

“It is the budget, I’ve got to deal with what I have got. You can try and contract 45 players with sort of the same standard, or you can go for a few players with the x-factor and a bit more experience and quality. With the latter, you’ve got to trim the numbers to make it work, and that is the decision that I took with the board. We decided to go with less but try and keep the quality high.

“With the PRO14 it is not that difficult because you don’t play every weekend, which is frustrating sometimes. You just get a bit of momentum and then you have three weeks in which you don’t play, then it's one or two games and two weeks off again.

“That gives you a bit of recovery time and the small niggles that normally happen during the season don’t affect you as much as in the Super Rugby where you play 14 games in 16 weeks. Guys with niggles might miss one or two games, whereas in PRO rugby that might be during the off week or the two weeks in which you don’t play, so you can cope with a smaller squad.

“If we do play a double-round in the Currie Cup it will be difficult, but we'll take it as it comes.”

Fourie also indicated that he will be making use of the players from the Tafel Lager Griquas to fill the gaps where need be.

@MorganPiek OFM Sport