10 Sep 2017

Defending BRU Super Rugby champions, BDF Cheetahs are in the final of the competition for the second year running after brushing aside UB Rhinos 28-15 in the semi-finals on Saturday.

Although Rhinos opened the scoring in the 12th minute through fullback Tshoganetso Katse’s penalty, two first half tries by Mathews Masike and Ketshedile Matengana as well as two conversions by Eddie Oosthuizen put the Cheetahs in control at SSKB Stadium.

The army team went to half-time leading 14-3, and increased their lead to 21-3 early in the second half when Eddie Ernest dispossessed Prince Chingo and scored the third try of the match, with Oosthuizen making another conversion.

Rhinos scored two tries through winger Oaitse Daniel and Thato Maifala towards the end of the match, but it was not enough to rescue anything as winger Omphile Kebobate scored a late try and Thabang Diphera made a conversion to seal a 28-15 victory for the soldiers.

Cheetahs assistant coach Gilbert Machobane was happy with the way his team executed its game plan. “Our plan was to play away from the Rhinos big forwards every time we were in possession. We played a lot of wide balls with speed because many Rhinos players are slow,” Machobane said.

Rhinos assistant coach Emmanuel Masinki said his team struggled because it had many injuries.

“I couldn’t fault the players’ performance, they tried but Cheetahs were better than us in many departments. Our plan was to play wide balls, but it was not effective because Cheetahs had a lot of players on the outside. We decided to go direct in the second half and things got better,” Masinki said.

Cheetahs will meet Gaborone Hogs in the title decider after Hogs narrowly saw off Canon Jaguars 31-29 in the other semi-final. Ends