Chiefs 1. G Shriram 2. B Dover 3. BS Read 4. JR Denton 5. J Torres 6. AX Kirikiri 7. WC Welker 8. S Humble (C) 9. LA Pilgrim 10. MJ Johns 11. DRP Taylor (K) 12. HJ Bots 13. GJ Weaver 14. BG Herd 15. MD Dorn 16. CW Jennings (on for LA Pilgrim 65th minute) 17. OJ Carson (on for G Shririam 75th minute) Cheetahs 1. BA Storer 2. MJ Edwards 3. S Masters 4. S Verigotta 5. J McDougal 6. SM Morgan 7. LM Sweetman 8. SIA Yates 9. ND Short 10. GEC King 11. JEM Logan (C) 12. CJ Devonshire 13. SM Green 14. SJ Nova 15. SLO Graham (K) 16. S Das (On for Morgan after 60 minutes) Post Game Injuries: None
Update: 0 mins Welcome to the Chiefs home ground for the battle between the teams in the bottom 2. The loser of this match will be favourite for the spoon. GJ Weaver vs SM Green will be a key battle today but the question is, can anyone get a lineout against the Cheetahs?
Update: 20 mins DRP Taylor has the ball for the kick off and has put a lovely one into the centres off the Cheetahs. SM Green claims the ball well before he is tackled by Weaver. Nova is on support outside of Green and he offloads to him. Nova takes the ball into the tackle by DRP Taylor. Short passes to King who hands it to Morgan on the rampage. Solid hit from Bots there. GEC KING HAS CHIPPED THE BALL OVER WITH LOGAN IN SPACE! TRYYYYYYYYYYYY CHEETAHS! Logan puts the ball down in the corner and that is awesome play from the Cheetahs. That was almost as good as Ames and Farnsworth’s piece of brilliance, but not quite . Graham misses the kick but the Cheetahs jog back happy as they are 5-0 up. DRP Taylor gets the game underway again. It is into the Cheetahs forward pack and McDougal takes it with brilliant lifting from Verigotta and Masters. He pulls it bak down and forms a maul. The Cheetahs take their time with this and then Short takes the ball out of the back of the maul. Debvonshire receives the ball at pace and smashes into HJ Bots…BRILLIANT BREAK FROM DEVONSHIRE AND HE ONLY HAS THE FULL BACK TO BEAT. Boom! Dorn has mowed Devonshire down like an elephant on an ant. Devonshire has knocked it on and play goes to a scrum to the Chiefs on the Chiefs 10 metre line.
Update: 40 mins LA Pilgrim feeds the ball in for the Chiefs and Dover hooks it back with Humble holding the ball up. He takes a pick and go and makes good ground with good support from the Chiefs. Pilgrim is up with Humble and takes it on a pick and go before anyone else can get to the breakdown. Nice quick play from the Chiefs, good rugby. BG Herd comes in at pace screaming for the ball but Pilgrim has handed it to Weaver and he is dodging very well. BRILLIANT SIDE STEP FROM WEAVER AND HE HAS MADE A LINEBREAK! But he has no support and Graham gets over to him and takes him down well. There is no support for Weaver at all and he gets turned over by the Cheetahs. Graham takes the ball and ploughs it over the touchline for a lineout. Dover waits for the call, then sends a medium-length ball straight to the middle. A lot of movement up and down the line by the Chiefs, and Denton arrives on time to pluck the ball out of the air for the Chiefs. He sends it back to Johns. The Chiefs have to get rid of it fast. Johns quickly passes it to Taylor for a solid kick down field, which rolls into touch. MJ Edwards spins the ball in his hands as he waits for the lineout complications to begin at this set-piece roughly thirty metres out from the try-line in the Cheetahs half. Verigotta gets up well to receive the short throw by Edwards, but Torres has a hand on the ball preventing him making the clean catch... The ball slips straight through Verigotta’s hands on to the ground behind him. Verigotta has fumbled that ball backwards. A couple of Chiefs players scent an opportunity and rush out of the defensive line. Sweetman scoops up the loose ball and heads for the dog-leg in the defence! Sweetman knocks the ball on and it is half time here with the score at 5-0 to the Cheetahs.
Update: 60 mins It's only a forty minute wait until one of these teams wins the match. No doubt it will be a bloody, hard-fought forty minutes. Graham will kick it off to restart the match for the Cheetahs. That kick-out from Graham is taken by Dover and he stands strong in the tackle as the Cheetahs forwards arrive. Great upper body strength there as the attacker manages to keep his feet. The Chiefs support gets there in time and a maul is formed. A couple of Chiefs forwards break off from the maul, surge ahead and get the drive moving along nicely, a decent territory gain there. MJ Johns sees space out wide, that's a lovely cross-kick to the far sideline but BG Herd is struggling to take the ball on the first bounce in acres of space! Herd doesn't want to check his run and is trying to take the ball in stride, but the pass just drifts behind him... Herd regathers the ball, but he's been collared by two defenders and desperately needs support here. And another breakdown is formed. A good contest by Verigotta at that ruck, he shovels the ball back on the Cheetahs side just as he's knocked down by Chiefs wipeout. The ref thinks for a moment and opens his arms wide... Play on! King drifts across field, showing the ball inside as Short and Yates go in motion. King dummies to Short and gives the ball to Yates on the switch, but Chiefs picked out the ball-carrier and bring him down well... Players from both sides hurry to the breakdown, good ball at the ruck for the Cheetahs. As one of the Chiefs centres crashes down on the dummy run, Morgan is already making his move to the outside. But he knocks it on and it is a scrum to the Chiefs.
Update: 80 mins S Das comes on for S Morgan for the Cheetahs. Let’s hope he can make an impact. Pilgrim feeds the ball in for the Chiefs and Dover forces it back after a solid push from Shriram and Read. Pilgrim passes back to Johns. THAT WAS REALLY SPECIAL FROM JOHNS! HE JUST STEPPED STRAIGHT PAST KING! HE HAS NO ONE LEFT TO BEAT AND SCORES UNDER THE POSTS! DRP Taylor converts the try and the score is now 7-5 to the Chiefs! What a game! CW Jennings comes on for LA Pilgrim for the Chiefs. Graham with the restart from half way. Shriram climbs high to take that shortish kick-off by Graham but he's lost his footing as he comes back down. Players from both sides lock horns above Shriram. The players scramble to the ruck. Shriram went straight down over the tackled Cheetahs player. He didn't stay up as the new law requires. Penalty. Second half of the 80th minute update coming soon.
