Sidbarret
Fred Wood (13)
I'll give it a go...
The Cheetahs will play like the Reds and don't mean that as complimentary as many here and elsewhere would. Expect them to tackle, spoil and generally slow down the everything the Brumbies try to do in attack. They also not above a bit of gamesmanship. Whenever there is a stoppage in play a front ranker will go down, not allowing the Brumbies to gain any momentum. Don't be fooled though, they are properly fit and will fancy themselves to score last so the Brumbies should look to open up a gap and not sit on a lead.
The key men in defence are their frontrankers, Adriaanse and Oosthuizen, Brussouw and the young lock Lood de Jager. Brussouws talents are well known, but look out for the big Coenie Oosthuizen who makes a surprising number of steals for man of his size and shape.
If you are looking for weaknesses in defence, the Cheetahs do lack size and power in the backline. In my opinion Jean De Villiers did great job of winning the Stormers their last encounter by simply smashing their midfield, the fact that it also protected his position in the Springbok side from Robert Ebersohn was simply an interesting sub-plot. I would expect that Jake White would have noticed too so can you could see Speight, Tomane and Kuridrani (sp) running plenty of ball off short passes in the midfield.
Be warned though, the Cheetahs are a courageous bunch with a knack for winning fifty-fifty balls. Any dropped passes from the Brumbies will see the Cheetahs come into their own.
The Cheetah's attacking game is built on turnover ball. They seem to have pretty good system for identifying opportunities on change of possession and getting the ball there.
Another feature of their attacking is that they are always looking for mismatches. They love using Rhule and Pretorius against the big men in the middle of the field and then sending it wide for Strauss and Labuschagne to run over backs.
One thing you won't see a lot of is long phases of attack. They typically look to strike quick and hard instead of endless recycling.
Look out for Strauss, Ebersohn and Willie Le Roux to lead the attack.
The Cheetahs first phase is very solid, but so are the Brumbies. It should be good battle, but I can't see either side winning a substantial advantage there.
One area that the Brumbies have a significant advantage is in their kicking game. The Brumbies have four very good kickers and they are not scared of using them. For the Cheetahs only Deniller can compete in terms of tactical kicking.
It pretty tough to challenge for the trophy from sixth place as you are guaranteed away games all the way through, but if it is ever going to happen things are perfectly set up for the Cheetahs. They should be pretty fresh with only handful of players involved in the June internationals and having come off a bye in the last round. They have also been fortunate in terms injuries, with only Goosen missing, but they lost him early so the team should be pretty settled.
Travelling shouldn't be too much of an issue either. They have traveled well the last two years, especially against Australian opposition.
