Cheetahs Pro 14 season

Cheetahs touring squad has been announced:

Charles Marais, Ox Nche, Joseph Dweba, Jacques du Toit, Torsten van Jaarsveld, Erich de Jager, Aranos Coetzee, Tom Botha, Justin Basson, Armandt Koster, Reniel Hugo, Rynier Bernardo, Paul Schoeman, Henco Venter, Gerhard Olivier, Niell Jordaan, Shaun Venter, Tian Meyer, Zee Mkhabela, Cecil Afrika, Robbie Petzer, Makazole Mapimpi, Ali Mgijima, William Small-Smith, Rayno Benjamin, Rosko Specman, Sergeal Petersen, Clayton Blommetjies.

Is that Blitz Boka star Cecil Afrika? Be interesting to see how he gets on in northern hemisphere 15 a side.

Yes it is, he is the back up 10 for the Cheetahs

Obviously you'll be supporting both South African sides in the Pro14 Biltong but which one will you love more?

I have always loved the Cheetahs because of the style they play Pete. But I like the Kings for a different reason alltogether, it is the hotbed of Black African rugby in South Africa, and it is going to be very interesting to see the talent that will be unearthed this upcoming season

Biltong wrote:Yes it is, he is the back up 10 for the Cheetahs

Rosco Specman in there as well. They are certainly not going to be short on pace!

Sergael Peterson comes from Eastern Province, a very exciting player. Rosco Speckman comes from Eastern Province, you will know him from Sevens, Mapimpi comes from the Eastern Cape, also a very promising wing.

BigGee wrote:

Biltong wrote:Yes it is, he is the back up 10 for the Cheetahs

Rosco Specman in there as well. They are certainly not going to be short on pace!

Yeah they will have an exciting backline and they will play with lotsof endeavour.

When they're playing games in the sleet, rain and mud of NH winter rugby in the depths of December/January/February and they shifting from those conditions to a SH summer!

Reckon they should do well away to the likes of Glasgow Warriors and Cardif Blues who have, if I'm not mistaken, 4g pitches insuring decent conditions underfoot.

thebandwagonsociety wrote:When they're playing games in the sleet, rain and mud of NH winter rugby in the depths of December/January/February and they shifting from those conditions to a SH summer!

Reckon they should do well away to the likes of Glasgow Warriors and Cardif Blues who have, if I'm not mistaken, 4g pitches insuring decent conditions underfoot.

They will have to get used to a variety of conditions which won't make it easy for them. The first few weeks will be fine when weather is still pretty good and all the pitches are firm but that will soon start to change.

Yes Glasgow have a decent artificial pitch these days but they may still face horizontal rain and sub freezing conditions in January. I would imagine that some of these guys may never have seen snow nor especially played in it!

The pitches, even the good ones will all get heavier as the season goes into winter. I remember Josh Strauss saying that he found that really hard to get used to when he first came to Glasgow. It took a lot out of him and he had to use different muscles to what he was used to. He was never seen as an 80 minute player in all his time there and that may well have been a part of that.

Quite what they will make of a roll in the mud of Rodney Parade, remains to be seen! The pitch has apparently been re-laid but we will reserve judgement as to how it looks by the end of march. The week following a mudfest in Newport, they will be back on to a rock hard pitch at 25 degrees and altitude.

Yes the change in conditions will work both ways and the NH teams will probably struggle with SA conditions as well. They won't be chopping and changing every week though. It may well be tough.

It is this chopping and changing that will be hard and may cause more injuries than they are used to

I think the kings are likely to adapt better to heavy pitches than the Cheetahs, we'll see as the season progresses

SA teams playing in sleet, rain and mud during Nov/Dec/Jan/Feb?
Here's the away matches for Cheetahs and Kings between now and end-March:

1 Sep Ulster
2 Sep Scarlets
9 Munster
9 Connacht
30 Dragons
4 Oct Benneton
29 Oct Glasgow
29 Oct Zebre
4 Nov Connacht
9 Mar Ulster
9 Mar Cardiff
16 Mar Glasgow
16 Mar Ospreys
23 Mar Leinster
23 Mar Ospreys

That's not too bad

Biltong wrote:That's not too bad

Exactly. It's good planning by schedulers. Equally the number of home matches during the same period is very low (due in part to Euro games and Six Nations) so visiting teams won't get scorched in summer temps.

Is there a buzz in SA around this competition? I haven't been this excited for the league season for a long time.

There is definite excitement yes, but what surprised me is the excitement of the players who seems genuinely looking forward to playing in Europe

Gonna be an interesting season. Really looking forward to it!

Afrika and Specman are electric and probably aren't the only ones with skills and pace in that squad.

Off topic, but who are South Africa's 2nd international team? Is it the u20s or their A team?

Used to be the SA A team, now it is the U20

I expect Bernardo would be snapped up by someone after he was released, it makes sense. No word of it here though.

LeinsterFan4life wrote:Is there a buzz in SA around this competition? I haven't been this excited for the league season for a long time.

I've been reading some of the SA media. One thing I've noticed is they seem to be positive about it. It makes a change from the constant negativity from the media in this part of the world.


I hope for the leagues sake the cheetahs and kings, or at least one of them will have a good season. It should keep the interest high in SA. There's almost no interest from Italy but it's hard to blame the Italian fans for not tuning in. Of course the Pro14 has dozens of South Africans in other teams which helps.


As for how things will go on the field. I think the cheetahs can win their first 2 matches away to Ulster and Munster. Perfect time to play those teams.