Toyota Cheetahs coach Hawies Fourie has placed a special focus on his side’s attack – which was found wanting against the Vodacom Bulls last weekend – ahead of their clash with the Xerox Lions this weekend.
The Carling Currie Cup game in Bloemfontein is important for both sides, especially as the race for playoff places is hotting up.
Fourie needs his attack to function well if they are going to take the points on offer.
The attack is not the only problematic part for him, with the Bulls dismantling their lineout to such an extent that it has become a mini-crisis for the Free State side that they need to rectify quickly.
“We need to improve our set pieces. Our scrums were relatively good, but unfortunately, we gave away two penalties near the end. We are, however, pretty satisfied with the strumming performance.
“In the lineouts, we lost too much ball and that is something we have to work a lot on,” Fourie told Supersport.com
“We also lose the ball too easily on the attack and we drop the ball a lot. So we’ve focused a lot of our attention on that this week, to keep possession longer and run better lines to ask more pertinent questions of the opposition.
“We’re not happy with the way we have attacked. Against Griquas, it was difficult to do so in the rain, but we need to take a step up,” he indicated.
The one good aspect for the Cheetahs was their strumming in the early part of the game with the young Boan Venter impressing against Springbok Marcelle van der Merwe.
Fourie believes Venter is a vital part of the Cheetahs and is slowly reaching his potential, which can only be good news for the Bloemfontein side.
“We put Boan up against the Stormers, and he scrummed well in that game, and followed it up with an excellent performance against Griquas and then against the Bulls as well. We’re really happy with his progress. He is a young loosehead with a lot of potential, and we’ve always felt he has the potential to do a lot more than we’ve seen in the past year or so.
“We’re seeing him start to play to his potential, so I’m very happy his game is showing growth and he has become an important part of our scrum,” he added.
