SWANSEA, Wales – After a disappointing start to the Pro14 season, the Cheetahs are set to take on Ospreys at the Liberty Stadium in Swansea on Saturday (kick-off 18:30 SA time), and coach Franco Smith says his team will face a "big challenge".
"The Ospreys team has a number of international players with a great pack of forwards and players like Alyn Wyn Jones, who is an excellent line-out jumper with lots of experience in the Wales and British & Irish Lions jerseys, and forwards like Justin Tipuric, Bradley Davies, Dan Lydiate," said Smith.
"There are also players like George North and Scott Williams who’s names stand out in the backline. From our side, we’d like to follow our processes and build on the positives from last week. We were still in strike range up to the 65th minute against one of the best defensive teams in the championship.
"We’ve asked ourselves a lot of good questions. We didn’t made use of all the opportunities and we want to improve on the set phases and defence. With the anticipation of relatively wet conditions, some areas of our game have been adapted to suit the weather circumstances."
The Cheetahs will be without Springbok forward, Oupa Mohoje, who has been side lined after suffering an ACL tear in his right knee in last week’s match against Munster. He is expected to be out of action for 9 months.
Gerhard Olivier has joined the team in Swansea and will be providing cover on the bench for Aidon Davis. Shaun Venter will be leading the side onto the field for this match. The Cheetahs will travel back to South Africa on Sunday for their round three match against Glasgow Warriors on Saturday, 15 September in Bloemfontein.
Cheetahs team:
15 Malcolm Jaer, 14 Rabz Maxwane, 13 Benhard Janse van Rensburg, 12 Nico Lee, 11 William Small-Smith, 10 Tian Schoeman, 9 Shaun Venter (captain), 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Aidon Davis, 6 Junior Pokomela, 5 JP du Preez, 4 Justin Basson, 3 Luan de Bruin, 2 Jacques du Toit, 1 Ox Nche. Substitutes: 16 Joseph Dweba, 17 Charles Marais, 18 Aranos Coetzee, 19 Walt Steenkamp, 20 Gerhard Olivier, 21 Tian Meyer, 22 Ernst Stapelberg/Marnus van der Merwe, 23 Ryno Eksteen