The Irish signed their tour to South Africa off unbeaten with the win, which could have very easily gone the other way had the Cheetahs converted their scoring opportunities into points.

Nathan Doak, Shane Daly and Jamie Osbourne all scored tries for the visitors, while both of the tries by the Cheetahs were penalty tries following strong scrums.

The Cheetahs' winger, Daniel Kasende, did however go over for two tries that were disallowed following TMO reviews.

The Cheetahs' scrum was solid in the match and this was an aspect of the Irish game that they did target as they identified it as a weakness. The Cheetahs' lineout, however, was very poor by their high standards and usual success rate of 90%. The Free Staters lost a total of eight lineouts, of which several were 5 metres of the Irish tryline.

The constant time-wasting by the Irish also frustrated the Cheetahs and this was the case in their games against the Griquas and Pumas, which also got to the spectators. It got to a point on Sunday when the crowd started showing their displeasure by booing the visitors.

The Cheetahs' coach, Hawies Fourie, told OFM Sport that they lost the game, as opposed to the Irish winning it, by not using their scoring opportunities.

"It should have been - we had so many opportunities in their 22 - if I counted correctly, we had seven setpieces in their 22," said Fourie.

"Our lineout didn't function today. It was the first time in quite a long time that it didn't work, and it was quite a shock to the team and they couldn't recover from that.

"The illness in the team before the game didn't help, but it's not an excuse. Overall, we are disappointed in our whole performance.

Meanwhile, the USA National A arrived in South Africa yesterday for Friday night’s game.

Fourie added that he will be fielding fringe players for this match and they can put pressure on the more regular players.

"We will give all of the players that haven't had a chance up to now some game time against the USA.

"It's a short turn-around as they will only have two days to train, but it's an opportunity for some of the fringe players to stake a claim in the squad that will tour in December.

"There are quite a few guides that didn't play well against the Emerging Irish and can't be proud of their performances. They will be under pressure if some of the other guys put up a big performance."

Friday night’s match between the Cheetahs and the USA at the Toyota Stadium will kick off at 18:00.

Scores:

Cheetahs: Tries – Penalty try 2.

Emerging Ireland: Tries - Nathan Doak, Shane Daly, Jamie Osbourne Conv. - Jack Crowley 3

Morgan Piek OFM Sport