Landers down feeble Cheetahs
27 Feb 2010
A poor all-round performance from the Cheetahs saw the Highlanders win 31-24 in Bloemfontein on Saturday.
The hosts were expected to record their first back-to-back wins in Super Rugby since rejoining the competition in 2006, against a Landers side that lost their two opening matches.
However, ill-discipline and poor defence cost the Cheetahs dearly. They conceded far too many penalties in kickable positions, and were often found wanting in defence. Even on the offensive, they were ineffective and guilty of poor handling, and it was only the individual brilliance of Heinrich Brussow and Juan Smith that saw them cross the whitewash twice.
The Landers took full advantage of the home team’s defensive frailties in the early stages of the first stanza, creating gaps in the defence through switch passes.
After an early Naas Olivier penalty, Highlanders pivot Michael Hobbs made the initial break which saw outside centre Kendrick Lynn dive over for the opening try.
The Cheetahs organised their defensive lines thereafter and placed more emphasis on attack. They gained momentum with ball in hand but poor handling prevented them from converting their try-scoring opportunities.
Hooker Adriaan Strauss ran into space out wide, but lost the ball in contact which gifted wing Fetu’u Vainikolowith a 60m runaway try. Olivier and Hobbs then traded penalties to give the Highlanders a 15-9 lead at the break.
The Cheetahs hit back in the third quarter through Brussow to reduce the gap to two points, but a third penalty from Israel Dagg and a late try by Hobbs secured the Landers their first win of the season, despite Smith touching down with three minutes to go.
By Gareth Duncan
187 Comments
Pages: « 1 2 3 [4] Show All
27 Feb 2010, 19:08 pm
Agree with Nzinchina….. bugger the spears and one other crowd….. even if it is my boys!
27 Feb 2010, 19:09 pm
@NZINCHINA:
After ten years of two week tours to SA, what are you expecting? Hollow victories.
27 Feb 2010, 19:10 pm
The ref had a good match
The landers’ had a great match
The Cheetahs talked a fantastic match … and lost
27 Feb 2010, 19:10 pm
@sglazer:
Are you going to answer the question, why don’t Aus teams win then?
27 Feb 2010, 19:10 pm
… and we are still blaming the time difference and hectic tour schedules….. so why do we still lose home games…..
*&&^%$% buggers!
27 Feb 2010, 19:12 pm
last week Pro apparently was favouring the Cheetahs against the Sharks & in a week he has turned into a Cheetah hater? Hahahaha and people keep saying us saffas never blame the ref?
27 Feb 2010, 19:12 pm
I’m so pissed of with 4 outta 5 ZA teams losing their games, I ain’t even gonna watch the bullybluebulls play…. let me go light the braai….. and have a few stiff dops….. might kill the pain….. it’s 30 degree;’s here in the Namib, with an almost full moon….. Yahoooooo! Slap me down and call me……
?
27 Feb 2010, 19:14 pm
Our administrators sell our players short and the NZ and Australian administrators gleefully accept
27 Feb 2010, 19:15 pm
@NZINCHINA:
Refer to post 67
27 Feb 2010, 19:17 pm
@Transformation:
Recently you blame the ref for every game you lose, it would seem for an SA super team to lose it is impossible unless the ref cheats or has a bad game, for an NZ or Aus team to beat an SA team on merit the ref must be a cheat or on the piss.
27 Feb 2010, 19:18 pm
The Mighty
H I G H L A N D E R S !!!!!!!!
27 Feb 2010, 19:19 pm
@Black Panther:
Hollow victory the ref was biased.
27 Feb 2010, 19:20 pm
@sglazer:
Congratulations !
youve wasted a whole thread blaming a poor record on travel during a game the SA home team lost.
27 Feb 2010, 19:21 pm
@Black Panther:
LOL his logic is right up there with big tits.
27 Feb 2010, 19:21 pm
@NZINCHINA:
give them enough rope…
27 Feb 2010, 19:23 pm
to this day, I cannot see how any professional team can blame travel for losing a game….. It’s not like you fly to the country, climb off the Transkie airline flight…. catch a donkey cart to the stadium and play the game….
Heck,, you fly first class, get a snazzy hotel…. sleep on the job for at least three days and then work for 80 minutes….
So bollocks!
27 Feb 2010, 19:24 pm
@Black Panther:
Didn’t catch the game but how did Roussow play, the guy that has outplayed McCaw for the last 3 years?
27 Feb 2010, 19:25 pm
A great w/e for the Kiwi teams.
Mighty Highlanders win on the road.
Cheifs win on the road, again.
Crusaders take the bonus point win.
Canes take the bonus point.
Blues win on the road.
same old same old.
27 Feb 2010, 19:25 pm
@namibianmoose:
Ask your mate SGLAZER, he swears by it.
27 Feb 2010, 19:28 pm
@NZINCHINA:
Roussow is that lemon Bulls player
presume you mean Brussouw ?
didnt catch the game meself JUST THE RESULT !!!! arr down in Godzone 36hrs ago, just in time to see the Crusaders front row completely dismantle the entire Bok Test front row. Bliss.
27 Feb 2010, 19:30 pm
Well i don’t … this is the pro era…. and I don’t mean Legota either……
Bring on the currie cup!
27 Feb 2010, 19:34 pm
Where does Watson find these so called Refs
27 Feb 2010, 19:52 pm
@Black Panther:
Oops your right too much bai jiu
27 Feb 2010, 20:42 pm
That imaginary “travel disadvantage” nonsense is being disproved year after year.
Jetlag is jetlag, whether its east-west or west-east. Remember that, whichever direction you’ve travelled, you inevitably have to go home in the opposite direction and then shake off the jetlag again. It evens out any directional “disadvantage’
And the NZ/Oz sides fly to SA and defeat the jetlag AND their more fancied SA opponents in their first week. After that, there is no more jetlag.
As for two weeks or three weeks away — that too is immaterial. The Antipodean teams may have slightly shorter stays, but they are cooped up in their hotels in a notoriously crime-infested and unsafe country where staying there is an ordeal not a pleasure. The SA teams fly to safe, scenic, first-world countries with ample tourist entertainment right on your doorstep and where you don’t need to watch your wallet or your back 24/7.
If a week longer on the road does your head in to the extent that you lose a winnable game in week 3, you’re mentally too fragile to play pro rugby. Go and flip burgers at Maccas for a living and sleep in your own bed every day. Be happy and poor.
27 Feb 2010, 21:10 pm
@NZINCHINA:
bai jiu ? rice whiskey ?
27 Feb 2010, 21:22 pm
Well done Highlanders….great win!!!
28 Feb 2010, 00:51 am
The diference between the 2 poor teams was Pro not giving 2 yellows out to the Highlanders for the thier cynical killing of play. They clearly decided before hand to kill any play that came near their 25m.
The Cheetahs kicking away of possesion, not counter rucking and poor backline pay cost them alot of advantage. Bosman and Delmas are riding their luck.
They could easliy slide Daniller or Viljoen in this role.
28 Feb 2010, 07:57 am
Th ereason that SA has not done well in the S14 is the same reason that they have done well in the RWC. The ref’s and the travel. You see in the RWC’s the ref’s are neutral….and we ALL have to stay there five weeks at a time.
Isdt teh same reason you have not done well at teh RWC’s – you are just not used to having to actually play to win without it being handed to you on a silver platter. And a whole 5 weeks away from you rhangis seems to destroy you…
Any more questions?
28 Feb 2010, 08:48 am
****. Boks won in 95 at home. Lucky in the Semi and fortunate the Final opponents had been hamstrung. As for 07, the Boks were lucky they escaped the 1 dodgy ref in the tourney and had the luckiest draw of any RWC. Travel played no part whatsoever. Yep, the played well but never needed their A game once
28 Feb 2010, 08:59 am
@Black Panther:
can you tell exactly what sort of draw you’d prefer to have next time at the worldcup? What time of day you’d prefer to play and what ref you’d prefer. You can even win the coin toss and chose to play the full 80 minutes from your favorite end of the pitch.
New Zealand will of course find another way to fck it up of that I have no doubt.
The Boks have won 2 worldcups because no side at the tournament was able to beat them. Everyway you look at it, that is what happened.
28 Feb 2010, 11:30 am
I honestly thought Cheetahs were gonna take this one
28 Feb 2010, 12:06 pm
@Brigadier Van Zyl:
My, thats an mature tack youre taking. However, I wasnt talking about the ABs in any way shape or form, so why are you now ?.
If I say that Boks were lucky to get a good draw in 2007, then thats just the facts. J.Whites Boks had losing records against 3 teams – NZ, Aus and France. They avoided all 3 teams they couldnt beat and their knockout opponents – Fiji and Argentina – were both teams they had NEVER lost to. If you dont consider that even slightly fortuitous, then you are not only deaf and blind, but dumb also.
As for 1995, well since Hollywood seems to have re-written the script, then I suppose thats your prerogative too.
28 Feb 2010, 12:15 pm
@Brigadier Van Zyl:
“The Boks have won 2 worldcups because no side at the tournament was able to beat them. ”
Now that would be a real RWC but last time i looked you didnt play everyone,you did play Fiji and Tonga,i believe they were a struggle
28 Feb 2010, 12:29 pm
Congrats to Victor and his merry men. If they could bottle selfbelief and sell it to the other SA franchises they would all be millionaires!
About the leaky defense, did we forget wat happened to the Chiefs and the Lions a week ago?
With new rule interpretations in the past few years, we have moved defenses 5 meters back and we are giving the attacking team all the rights to the ball, so the old addage of good defense wins matches is becoming a little long in the tooth.
Cudos to the Bulls for realizing that the new cliche will be “you win by scoring more points than the opposition, no matter how or5 how many is required!”
Another thing, all the gurus had it at the beginning of the S14 that there would be a rebirth of the large , heavy blindside flanker and eighthman. I think we have seen repeatedly that that is not necessarily true. We have seen Palu, Danie Rossouw, Jean Deysel, the bigger Rodney So’ialo, Duane Vermeulen, Lauaki and the like suddenly take a step back this year. Fact is, size and weight/bulk is not enough. Speed as an added component to that has become imperrative, as we have seen from Spies, Patterson, The ‘bigger’ Kanko when he carries, Willem Alberts, Messam, Lowe and the like.
They are able to get into the ideal position quicker and can build up more momentum than the slowpoke big boys.
1 Mar 2010, 23:19 pm
@Black Panther:
Pathetic doos!
1 Mar 2010, 23:47 pm
@Black Panther: Regardless of how you try to spin it, you got knocked out by France who got knocked out by England. And we beat them. Twice. Including a 36-0 humiliation. Those facts are like a bare cement room with no furniture and a very bright light.
2 Mar 2010, 04:38 am
Black Cat Peanut Butter still can’t get over last year’s Springbok dominance of world rugby and is finding that pill very bitter to swallow.
Pages: « 1 2 3 [4] Show All
Have your say
You must be logged in to post a comment.