The Cheetahs will host a confident Sharks outfit at the Toyota Stadium in Bloemfontein on Friday in what promises to be another demanding early-season test.

While the narrow 29-27 victory over last season’s runners-up, the Lions, has injected fresh belief into the Bloemfontein camp, the Cheetahs are under no illusions that there is plenty of work still to be done. Their performance was gritty rather than polished, and Steyn knows the Currie Cup is not won in the opening round.

Juan Venter. Photo: Morgan Piek

The Sharks also made an impressive start to their campaign by upsetting the reigning SA Cup champions, the Pumas, in Nelspruit. The Durban side claimed a valuable bonus-point 26-24 victory at the Mbombela Stadium, sending an early warning to the rest of the competition that they mean business.

For the Cheetahs, much of the focus this week will be on improving their first-time tackling, which lacked consistency against the Lions, while their usually reliable line-out also fell below its customary standard. 

Although the Lions battled in that department as well, Steyn will expect a far sharper display against the Sharks.

One of the biggest positives for the Cheetahs was simply finding a way to win. It marked the first time in several seasons that they had opened a competition with victory, giving them valuable momentum heading into a challenging run of fixtures.

Steyn told OFM Sport while he was far from satisfied with the overall performance, collecting five log points was the perfect platform to build on.

“We’re not over the moon with everything, but we’ll take the five points and work hard for next week, and the week after,” said Steyn.

“The Currie Cup isn’t going to be won in the first week, so we’ve still got a couple of weeks to go. We started with a win, and that’s important.”

The line-outs were for a free-for-all at times between the Cheetahs and Lions. Photo: Morgan Piek

“Defensively they cut us a couple of times, we struggled in the line-outs, and on attack we threw the ball away just before halftime for a try that never should have happened.

“I can’t say there was one area where I was happy. We need to fix all of it. We’re not going to fix everything before next week, but we have to be better.”

Steyn said the team had spent their short pre-season working on several key areas, but acknowledged that meaningful improvement takes time.

Faf de Klerk showed a lot of commitment in the defence. Photo: Morgan Piek

“We worked on the challenges, but it didn’t seem like everything had changed already,” said Steyn with a laugh.

“You can see glimpses of it here and there, but it’s about getting this team playing together week in and week out and performing at a high level.”

The two-time Rugby World Cup winner also believes South Africa’s so called bigger four unions have invested more heavily in their Currie Cup squads this season. Both the Sharks and the Stormers XXIII made winning starts against the Pumas and Suzuki Griquas respectively, underlining the quality of the competition.

Slipping tackles was too easy at times for the Lions. Photo: Morgan Piek

Steyn knows the Cheetahs will have to raise their standards considerably if they are to overcome an energetic Sharks side on Friday.

“I think the bigger unions have put out much better teams this year than in previous seasons,” he said.

“They’ve got some really good players, and there’s a lot of talent in this country. The first contest is out of the way; we got the win, everybody now knows what to expect, and hopefully we learn from this.”

Friday’s Currie Cup clash between the Cheetahs and Sharks at the Toyota Stadium kicks off at 17:00.

OFM Sport/Morgan Piek dg