Cheetahs fight back to sink Sunwolves

The second half of this match was not fun at all, and it got worse as the half plodded on in Singapore's heat.

The match officials wore Japanese referees' outfits; presumably it was a home match for the Sunwolves. It must be the remotest home match in the world. Tokyo, where they played their first home match, is 5 314 km from Singapore. By jet plane they are 6½ hours away. and it's not just about distance. The maximum temperature in Tokyo was to be 8°C, in Singapore 28°C. Some home game!

A lot of the problems of the desultory second half could well be laid at the weather's door as the players became increasingly sluggish and afflicted by cramp.

It was not fun.

There was another difference from the match against the Lions in Tokyo. The crowd was smaller but more aggressive. In Tokyo nobody booed, and the crowd applauded the good things the visitors did.

Also, at half-time the Cheetahs sent on their strong men, including their better front row and muscular Boom Prinsloo. They then changed from careless kicking to short-distance pick-'n-drive. Before they scored their winning try they were bashing at the Sunwolves' line for eight playing minutes, well over nine minutes' running time, a period in which the referee played advantage several times, gave a yellow card, had two scrums, took time off to chat to the impish scrumhalves, waited while cramp was ironed out, and had two line-outs and two mauls.

By way of a contrast the first half was far livelier, thanks largely to the enterprise of the Sunwolves and their dancing feet. The Cheetahs kicked a lot and the Sunwolves ran a lot and ended the half leading 21-3, three tries to none.

The first try came early in the half. From a scrum on their right, the Sunwolves went fast left and then came back far right with quick hands. Right wing Akihito Yamada danced inside hooker Jacques du Toit to score a happy try. From far out Tusi Pisi converted. 7-0 after 4 minutes.

Sturdy Niel Marais kicked two penalty goals to make it 7-6, and then Pisi played magician yet again.

The Cheetahs were penalised on the Sunwolves left and inside their half. Pisi shaped to kick out, what any normal flyhalf would do. Instead he tapped and set the match alight with a long diagonal kick towards the right touchline where Rian Viljoen beat Raymond Rhule to the ball. He gave to Yamada who skipped away from Sias Ebersohn and scored in Shaun Venter's tackle. 14-6 after 13 minutes.

The Cheetahs took advantage of a knock-on and went left where Sergeal Petersen put a brilliant, sympathetic little chip behind the defenders. Marais ran onto it and footed the ball into in-goal where he dived on it for a try. 14-13 after 25 minutes. And the Cheetahs could have taken the lead. Venter took a tap and raced down the right touchline with Petersen unmarked on his inside. Having beaten one he kept running where a pass inside would have produced an easy try. Instead he hung on, Pisi made contact at the touchline and Venter lost the ball forward.,

The Sunwolves went right and Pisi produced another of his delightful tricks, this time a short chip to his right, which inside centre Yu Tamura collected and played inside to Yamada on his left, and the flying wing went off to score under the posts, his hat-trick try. 21-13 after 34 minutes, the half-time score.

In that half the Cheetahs had missed 12 tackles and had played second fiddle to the eager Japanese side at the breakdowns. But the Cheetahs decided that scrums and line-outs were a priority and changed four forwards at half-time and the way they set about playing the game.

The second half looked like more of the same for the Sunwolves when Pisi broke and gave to hooker Shota Horie who bounced off Rhule and flung himself over under the posts. 28-13 which became 31-13 when Pisi goaled a penalty.

There were still 37 minutes top play and the Sunwolves did not score again, though they had two kickable penalty possibilities but failed to goal them.

Uzair Cassiem came in at an angle, took a short pass from Shaun Venter and burst over for a try. 21-20 after 46 minutes.

The Cheetahs attacked through their forwards when Marais picked up a poor pass, dummied and beat some feeble tackling to score. 31-27 after 54 minutes.

Then came the lengthy period of Cheetah attack along the Sunwolves' goal-line with brave tackles and multiple infringements to keep them out till the Cheetahs rushed a line-out maul over the line for a try credited to Prinsloo. Marais's conversion hit the upright and stayed out.

There were eight minutes to play, during which the Cheetahs were not in danger of losing.

Man of the Match: I have two, both Sunwolves - Tusi Pisi and Akihito Yamada who provided joyful excitement till logistics knocked it out of them.

The scorers:

For Sunwolves:

Tries: Yamada 3, Horie

Cons: Pisi 4

Pen: Pisi

For: Cheetahs:

Tries: N Marais 2, Cassiem, Prinsloo

Cons: N Marais 3

Pens: N Marais 2

Yellow card: Edward Quirk (Sunwolves, 70 - repeated infringements)

Teams:

Sunwolves: 15 Riaan Viljoen, 14 Akihito Yamada, 13 Harumichi Tatekawa, 12 Yu Tamura, 11 Yasutaka Sasakura, 10 Tusi Pisi, 9 Atsushi Hiwasa, 8 Edward Quirk, 7 Andrew Durutalo, 6 Liaki Moli, 5 Hitoshi Ono, 4 Timothy Vond, 3 Shinnosuke Kakinaga, 2 Shota Horie (captain), 1 Keith Inagaki.

Replacements: 16 Takeshi Kizu, 17 Masataka Mikami, 18 Takuma Asahara, 19 Shinya Makabe, 20 Yoshiya Hosoda, 21 Kaito Shigeno, 22 Derek Carpenter, 23 Mifiposeti Paea.

Cheetahs: 15 Sias Ebersohn, 14 Sergeal Petersen, 13 Francois Venter, 12 William Small-Smith, 11 Raymond Rhule, 10 Niel Marais, 9 Shaun Venter, 8 Henco Venter, 7 Uzair Cassiem, 6 Paul Schoeman, 5 Francois Uys, 4 Carl Wegner, 3 Johan Coetzee, 2 Jacques du Toit, 1 Retshegofaditswe Nche.

Replacements: 16 Torsten van Jaarsveld, 17 Charles Marais, 18 Nicolaas van Dyk, 19 Reniel Hugo, 20 Hilton Lobberts, 21 Johannes Prinsloo, 22 Tian Meyer, 23 Fred Zeilinga.

Referee: Quinton Immelman

Assistant referees: Shuhei Kubo, Aki Aso

TMO: Takashi Hareda