Toyota Cheetahs v Glasgow Warriors, Friday 6 October 17 , Bloemfontein ,SA

First topic message reminder :

I stole Sergio Parisse's methodology and said "FFS I will do it myself" Here therefore, is the thread and I know it does not have any of GC's fancy-dan stuff but if Jimbo gets away with it so can I.

Anyway looks like all the big guns have arrived in SA as on Twitter via GW's official site

We've got Niko in a fever
Hotter than a pepper sprout
he's been pining for Scotstoun
Ever since the jury went out.

Yeah Jackson and Gibbins were immense. Russell really showed his skills too, lovely passing and kicking. Also welcome back to mad Niko, what an offload! There'll be some immensely tired Glasgow bodies after that one, really gave it their all.

The scrum continues to worry me, Exeter will be sure to target that.
Fatigue could play a big part in selection next week, it may even lead to Renzo selecting a hooker who can throw to his jumpers.

Mad for Chelsea wrote:Yeah Jackson and Gibbins were immense. Russell really showed his skills too, lovely passing and kicking. Also welcome back to mad Niko, what an offload! There'll be some immensely tired Glasgow bodies after that one, really gave it their all.

And this the worry, with Exeter next week. But whey-hay, we could be 9 points clear in the conference if Munster get naught tomorrow! Great effort so far!

Cheetahs froze in that second half,

Just watched the match when I got in from work.

What an exciting game, even if it was full of mistakes from both teams. How did Glasgow manage to win it without any decent set piece ball? Yet, as the game went on, you always sensed that they were going to!

If you did not know it before, you know now that the Warriors are a really fit team and can outlast others even in really alien conditions that most of them will never have played in before. That is some credit to their conditioning and preparation for this game.

It does remain to be seen though, just what it will take out of them for the trip to Exeter next week. It is not the game they would have chosen to have played at this point.

The set piece remains a massive worry, I don't think I have ever seen our lineout malfunction quite so badly. We are going to struggle in the big Euro games unless we sort that out.

On the positive side, there were some great individual performances. Gibbins as usual and Russell was absolute class.

Among the unsung hero's though was Jacko, who had a great all round game and surely won it for us with his read for the intercept. Niko and Henry P showed what value they bring from the bench, a game breaker and a game reader. That is what wins these very tight games.

I have to say that the South African adventure has been a great addition to the league from what I have seen so far. They are really going to add something.

Anyway 6 from 6. I would have taken that at the beginning of the season!

Congrats Glasgow but you have probably ruined your chances in europe with this.

Great 5 pts and congrats to all involved.   Jacko was my MoM.   Watch the build up to Gibbins 2nd try.  Great work by Leo Sarto then an Alex Allen brain fart,  then a great tackle by Finn to disrupt the pass, then intercept by Jacko, supported eventually by Finn then Gibbins.   Terrific effort.

Clancy was, as usual, friggin appalling.   How anyone involved in rugby think Clownshoes is fit to referee any grade of rugby never mind professionals is beyond me.   He is the complete idiot.  Cockerill at the Luvvies thinks Lacey and Mitrea are bad (agreed).   Wait until they get Clownshoes ffs:

Fantastic win Glasgow, although I'm not sure how it happened given the appalling set piece! Something that you'll have to rely on next week I suspect...

And the Niko debate will rumble on: matchwinner or liability
The support line and off-load for Henners' try was simply sublime, took out four defenders , but to follow that up with giving away a kickable penalty that put the Cheetahs back in front .

Life would be so much duller without him.

We've got Niko in a fever
Hotter than a pepper sprout
He's been pining for Scotstoun
Ever since the jury went out.

I'd have Niko on the bench for most games. His impact probably won us that game and not for the first time. He is a winger now though first and foremost and a SH as a back up.

Henners also had a very good game off the bench, his best for a long time and brought a bit of control that had been lacking up to that point. I would not be surprised if he starts next week and Price comes off the bench.

Leo Sarto on the other hand had a much poorer game. dropped balls and did one appalling kick straight back to them. He may have played himself out of the team and let Jonsey back in.

No don't agree re Leo Sarto Gee. Watch the build up to the second try again when the Cheetahs attack down our left - Sarto does really well defensively and it is subsequently ruined by Alex Allen's feck -up. He did not feature in attack as he didn't get much ball- same as Seymour.

Some kind soul put the whole match on YouTube so I got to watch all of this. 

Cannot understand how we won with bugger all set piece platform. That is a bit worrying given the quality of the opposition which we have next. Mind you, 6 from 6 is to be applauded and there is clearly a lot of good feeling amongst this group of players, so I should probably just shut up and enjoy it. 

What we don't know is how much Rennie wants to prioritise Europe over the domestic league. I don't think that we can assume he will in the same way that Toonie obviously did. In Super Rugby, the league is everything. 

Should we be worried that we don't know what our first choice forward pack is yet?

George Carlin wrote:

Should we be worried that we don't know what our first choice forward pack is yet?

I would say that we probably do know:

Keeble (currently injured) so Bhatti
Brown
Zander
Johnny
Swinson
Wilson
Gibbins
Ashe

reserves:

Allen
Turner
Rae
Cummins/Big Brian
Harley/Fagerson

Its a pretty decent pack on paper and is blowing teams apart in the loose, but yet does not seem to be firing on all cylinders in the set plays at all. The only position that seems an obvious weakness is LH, where Bhatti does seem to be struggling a bit. That should improve once kebble gets back on the park, but sadly not for this weekend.

Johnny and Frazer Brown can be forgiven for not quite being at the races on Friday night. Playing in those sorts of conditions for come back games must be really hard. Hopefully they will have benefitted from the experience and will be more up to speed next weekend.

We have not been great in scrums in particular all season, but Friday night was awful. You have got to hope that it was just an aberration and will be improved next weekend. Whatever our scrum and lineout are doing though, we are winning and scoring tries. You would hope that with some decent ball that will only improve.

Well Fraz Brown won't be taking any part v Chiefs as he was out cold just before ht