If ever there was a reason to amalgamate the Cheetahs and the Lions back into the Cats Saturday’s thespian performance by the Free Staters was it. It was a display of a team that was scratching the bottom of the rugby talent barrel, who despite effort and commitment of which there was plenty, was never going to get close to winning. The Brumbies galloped to a 61-15 victory in what was a very one sided match.
For pity sake for how much longer can the Lions and Cheetahs be allowed to keep competing separately? They are destined to fight for the wooden spoon year in and year out, if they merge again they'll probably still be weak but rather one SA side being hammered like this than two. It could even free up the space for the “Southern Kings” and then maybe politicians and fans will finally be happy. The Cheetahs like the other feline team simply do not have the resources for a competition like this.
The problem is that the Brumbies were not even good on the day, they knocked the ball on, and passed forward as much as the worst of teams and yet still managed to canter through the swiss cheese defense of the Cheetahs. Kabamba Floors and Barend Pieterse agreed that the task was not quite difficult enough and allowed their team mates to struggle on without them as they sat out for 10 minute intervals. In Floors’ case he was cited and will miss the next 5 matches so the stock of talent to take the field next week will even be more scanty. The blonde Floors Mop doesn’t seem to realize that spear tackling is not a sign of class and it doesn’t take much to execute it.
To be fair the Cheetahs never gave up and like the Lions kept trying to the end however against a team that contains some outstanding play makers in Gitau, Ashley-Cooper and Huia Edmonds this was always going to get ugly for the Cheetahs. But not this ugly surely?
