Highlanders to face Cheetahs at Carisbrook on Friday
Highlanders would face the Cheetahs in the seventh round of the Super Rugby on Friday at Carisbrook.
Highlanders are placed on 7th position at the points table as they have won four out of six matches in the ongoing Super Rugby 15 championship. Whereas the Cheetahs are exactly on the bottom of points table as they could produced just one victory after playing
seven.
Though the Cheetahs are looking really down with their consistent bad performance but the Highlanders are not taking the clash lightly. They are aware of the fact that the Cheetahs could be destructive on their day. That is why senior campaigners of their
side are pushing up the team for serious effort.
Chris King has warned his team not to take the Cheetahs as easy rivals. He said that Cheetahs are having very bad season no doubt but they would love to end the season at least with one more victory.
He argued, “They've proved they can win away from home with that win (23-3) over the Waratahs, and they ran the Blues close last week. We've got to do the little things well and defend well.”
King was impressive during the last match they won against the ACT Brumbies and wants to repeat the same show. He said that Bloemfontein-based franchise is very much capable of producing an upset presentation.
He added that Cheetahs need strong defence to tackle them, “Definitely. Give them a bit of space and they'll take it. They're very direct with their forwards, like most South African teams, and we have to make sure we shut them down.”
Similarly, another star of Cheetahs Jason Rutledge has some concerns regarding their next clash. Rutledge believes that their opponents are more than they displayed in the tournament. He quoted their victory against the Waratahs and a close defeat from the
Blues.
At the same time, the Cheetahs would go in the field with immense confidence after a tremendous victory of 26-20 over the Brumbies in Invercargill during last week. Rutledge added that it is important for us to play against them after a comprehensive victory.
He accelerated his conversation by saying, “They had a lot of possession and territory but we felt we had the upper hand on them. We won our entire lineout and we had good ball from scrums so we were pleased with that improvement.”
On the other hand, Cheetahs have made just one change for the upcoming match. The coach Jamie Joseph told the reporters about his decision that the lock Josh Bekhuis would replace Tom Donnelly for Friday’s game.
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