Head coach Hawies Fourie has insisted the Free State Cheetahs are more than motivated to dethrone Currie Cup champions, the Pumas, on Saturday.
The Free Staters beat the Vodacom Bulls to secure home advantage for the season decider, while Jimmy Stonehouse’s troops earned the right to defend their title this weekend courtesy of victory over the Sharks in Durban.
The Cheetahs avenged an early-season 61-21 thrashing by the Pumas with a 29-14 round 13 win in Nelspruit, but it’s last year’s last-gasp semi-final defeat in Bloemfontein to the men from Mpumalanga that has been a bitter pill to swallow for Fourie’s charges.
Speaking post-match last week, the Cheetahs boss told reporters: “The Pumas for me are a really dangerous team on attack. They can score tries from anywhere on the field, and they are very physical – so it’s a bit more difficult to get momentum and quick ball against them than any other team in the competition.
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“We’ve got a score to settle with the Pumas since last year’s semi-final … so there’s enough motivation for us, and to win the Cup is the ultimate.
“It’s a big relief [getting to the final], especially for myself. That loss against the Pumas last year, it took a long time for me to get over it. I think I’m only over it now.
“All those things go into your head – where we conceded two tries in the last 10 minutes [against the Pumas], and it nearly happened again [against the Bulls] with that try that they didn’t allow, with about 12 minutes to go.
“But we are well conditioned, which was a bit of a problem last year, and I think our bench makes a huge difference. The guys that are coming on lift the energy, lift the tempo – so I was confident that if we could get ahead by half time, that we would win the game.
“It was a quality performance from us … There was nothing flashy … we just did the basics very well, and stuck to what’s working for us.”
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