Oupa in as Cheetahs power up for Cardiff

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Springbok forward Oupa Mohoje has been promoted to the Cheetahs starting lineup for the #EPCRChallengeCup showdown against Cardiff in the Welsh capital on Saturday night.

Mohoje, who made the last of his 19 Test appearances in 2018, packs down at blindside flank in one of two changes to the Cheetahs team that was held to a 20-20 stalemate by Perpignan in Amsterdam last week.

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In the other change, back-three dynamo Cohen Jasper starts on the left wing, Prince Nkabinde dropping out of a matchday squad that features a 6-2 bench.

“We pride ourselves on our forwards pack,โ€ said Cheetahs flanker, Gideon van der Merwe. “Coach Sakkie (Izak van der Westhuizen) drives us hard, and the standards are high. It is good to see that we can dominate up front in Europe. We just need to keep that going and we need to work more on our attacking and defensive side.โ€

Cardiff opened the Challenge Cup with 37-26 reverse at Lyon, and they will charge at the Cheetahs behind veteran Wales No 8 Toby Faletau and flyer Josh Adams, while former Lions scrumhalf Johan Mulder has been named on the bench.

Cheetahs — 15 Michael Annies, 14 Munier Hartzenberg, 13 Carel-Jan Coetzee, 12 Ali Mgijima, 11 Cohen Jasper, 10 Ethan Wentzel, 9 Ruben de Haas, 8 Jeandre Rudolph, 7 Oupa Mohoje, 6 Gideon van der Merwe, 5 Victor Sekekete (c), 4 Carl Wegner, 3 Aranos Coetzee, 2 Louis van der Westhuizen, 1 Schalk Ferreira
Subs: 16 Vernon Paulo, 17 Hencus van Wyk, 18 Robert Hunt, 19 Pierre-Raymond Uys, 20 Friedle Olivier, 21 Daniel Maartens, 22 Rewan Kruger, 23 George Lourens

Cardiff — 15 Cam Winnett, 14 Josh Adams, 13 Rey Lee-Lo, 12 Ben Thomas, 11 Tom Bowen, 10 Callum Sheedy, 9 Aled Davies, 8 Toby Faletau, 7 Dan Thomas, 6 James Botham, 5 Teddy Williams, 4 Josh McNally, 3 Will Davies-King, 2 Liam Belcher (c), 1 Corey Domachowski
Subs: 16 Dafydd Hughes, 17 Danny Southworth, 18 Keiron Assiratti, 19 Seb Davies, 20 Alex Mann, 21 Alun Lawrence, 22 Johan Mulder, 23 Rory Jennings

Photo: Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images

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