A powerful second-half performance saw the Toyota Cheetahs come from behind to take a clean sweep of the Toyota Challenge Bloemfontein matches with a 27-12 victory over the Western Force on Saturday.
The Force opened with gusto, scoring twice early on to take a 12-0 lead but were unable to take that further as the Cheetahs, who changed 13 players from last week’s game, found their feet and started to fight back.
It wasn’t long before the Cheetahs were on the back foot and captain Jeandre Rudolph was yellow-carded for team offences in the red zone and the Force struck almost immediately when Sam Spink came in on an angle to beat the defence and score.
It wasn’t long afterwards that Bayley Kuenzle crashed over from close range to make it 12-0 and rattle the Cheetahs even more.
But slowly, they fought back and it wasn’t long before they hunted their way into the 22m area and man of the match Daniel Maartens crashed over from close range.
On the halftime whistle, the Cheetahs took the lead as their forwards rumbled over and Marko Janse van Rensburg added his name to the scoresheet.
Impressive young winger Marcell Muller scored in the corner to give the home side control of the game before Ruan Pienaar, on as a late replacement, added another three points to make it a lot more comfortable for the Cheetahs.
The home side scored at the death to make the scoreline more respectable as Janus Venter gave them the clean sweep with a late try.
SCORERS
Toyota Cheetahs
Tries: Daniel Maartens, Marko Janse van Rensburg, Marcell Muller, Janus Venter
Conversions: George Lourens
Penalty: Ruan Pienaar
Western Force
Tries: Sam Spink, Bayley Kuenzle
Conversion: Max Burey
