The team left hot summer conditions in South Africa to face very cold weather in the Netherlands, and it will take a few days to acclimatise. But tough conditions or not, the men from Bloemfontein have a job to do this Sunday (11/1)  against Ulster. 

After two rounds in the competition, Ulster tops the leaderboards for most points (87), most tries (13), and most carries (303). Toyota Cheetah’s backline coach Ruan Pienaar said they are under no illusions about the challenge ahead. 

Pienaar, who played 141 games for Ulster between 2010 and 2017 and scored a whopping 877 points for the club, said it would have been nice to play the match at Ravenhill Stadium in Belfast. However, he said they are ready to give their best to Amsterdam. 

“I know it’s going to be a tough one. I think Ulster’s playing some really good rugby at the moment,” he said. “It’s a club I spent a lot of time with. There are a few guys still left that I played with, so it will be special to meet up with them again. But we know it’s going to be a massive challenge for us. Hopefully, preparations go well this week, and we can put up a really good performance.”

The Cheetahs learnt many hard lessons during their first two EPCR Challenge Cup matches at the beginning of December last year. They suffered heavy defeats against Exeter Chiefs (42-12) and Stade Francais (45-22) in Amsterdam. 

Ulster against Munster

Pienaar said these lessons will come into play this week. “We saw on the weekend what Ulster did against Munster in a game played in terrible conditions, but it shows their quality to put up such a big score against a really good side,” he said.

“We didn’t get what we wanted out of those two games, and playing against Ulster, that’s in good form at the moment, it will be really tough.”

Sunday’s match against Ulster at the NRCA Stadium in Amsterdam kicks off at 17:15. The following week, the Cheetahs will travel to Paris to take on Racing92.

OFM Sport/Ilse Smalberger mvh