OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 9.30pm.
THE Free State Cheetahs kept their Bankfin Currie Cup semi-final hopes alive when they beat the Boland Cavaliers 59-19 in Wellington on Sunday.
The Cheetahs, who led 21-5 at the break, ran in nine tries to collect the maximum points and advance to fifth place on the Currie Cup log.
Boland started the game at a furious pace, with their front row pressuring the Cheetahs’ forwards. The Cavaliers scored the first try of the match after only five minutes when left wing Jan Ackerman dotted down. After the try, however, the match fell into a scrappy pattern, with neither team being able to do much with the ball.
A six-minute blitz just before half-time was the turning point in the match, with the Free Staters running in three well-worked tries. After the break things went the same way with fullback Jorrie Kruger dotting down after just three minutes.
The Cheetahs owe their victory to their superior possession, generated by their backs playing back into their forwards at crucial times. The Cavaliers were starved of possession, and although they tried hard enough, they were never able to make it back into the match after the Cheetahs’ first-half raids.