Cheetahs, Lions set for a cat fight

Published Sep 14, 2016

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Johannesburg - It promises to be a good old scrap in Bloemfontein on Thursday and the coaches of the Free State Cheetahs and Golden Lions have added more hype to this cat fight by making minor changes to their respective winning teams.

The Cheetahs have all but secured themselves a place in the semi-finals after beating the Sharks last weekend and extending their unbeaten run in the competition to five matches but they will want to continue with their unblemished record in the same way the Lions did in capturing last year’s Currie Cup title.

On the other hand, the Lions will look to maintain the momentum from the turnaround victory against Western Province but will be under pressure for another win if they are to stay in the hunt for a play-off berth as they look to move from sixth place on the log into a semi-final berth.

The resurgent Lions will keep to almost the same team that mauled Western Province 58-32 with only two changes in the pack as Andries Ferriera replaces the injured Lourens Erasmus at lock and Cyle Brink comes in at blindside flank in place of Ruan Ackerman, who drops to the bench.

Martin Muller has been called onto the bench as cover at lock with Pieter Scholtz coming in as a replacement prop.

Ackermann has been one of the Lions' standout players and he will be afforded a break to give Brink more game time.

Brink is no slouch and proved to be an integral member of the Lions team that did so well in Super Rugby and put up his hand as one of the promising loose forwards in the country.

Meanwhile in Bloemfontein, hooker Torsten van Jaarsveld will lead the Cheetahs taking over the captaincy from Tian Meyer who drops to the bench and Shaun Venter takes over the duties at scrumhalf.

Cheetahs coach Franco Smith has made a further two changes in the backline with Niel Marais replacing Fred Zeilinga at flyhalf and William Small-Smith coming in for Michael van der Spuy at inside centre.

Golden Lions: Andries Coetzee, Selom Gavor, Jacques Nel, Rohan Janse van Rensburg, Anthony Volmink, Jaco van der Walt, Ross Cronje (captain), Fabian Booysen, Cyle Brink, Kwagga Smith, Andries Ferreira, JP du Preez, Ruan Dreyer, Robbie Coetzee, Dylan Smith. Replacements: Armand Akker’ van der Merwe, Pieter Scholtz, Martin Muller, Ruan Ackermann, Dillon Smit, Ashlon Davids, Howard Mnisi.

Free State Cheetahs: Clayton Blommetjies, Rayno Benjamin, Nico Lee, William Small-Smith, Raymond Rhule, Niel Marais, Shaun Venter, Henco Venter, Uzair Cassiem, Paul Schoeman, Reniel Hugo, Justin Basson, Tom Botha, Torsten van Jaarsveld (captain), Ox Nche. Replacements: Jacques du Toit, Charles Marais, Armandt Koster, Tienie Burger, Niell Jordaan, Tian Meyer, Fred Zeilinga.

The Star

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