The Toyota Cheetahs are on their mandatory eight-week break following a gruelling season which kicked off in December 2023 with the EPCR Challenge Cup. To say it was a challenging season is an understatement as the team lost their then coach, Hawies Fourie, just before the SA Cup got underway, while they were also dethroned as the Currie Cup champions after falling short to the Lions in the semi-finals in Johannesburg. In addition, they were plagued by numerous long-term injuries throughout the year.
There were definitely a lot of positives from the season as well, and the biggest was the addition of numerous rookies to their squad. These young and inexperienced players grew throughout the season and many of them were boosted with more than ten games for the Free State. This was down to the team’s strategy of fast-tracking the players into senior rugby, and a lot of them have excelled. They include Vernon Paulo (hooker), Ethan Wentzel (flyhalf), Jandré ‘Smiley’ Nel (scrumhalf), Neels Volschenk (loose-forward), Sisonke Vumazonke (loose-forward), and Michael Annies (outside back). Volschenk even went on to captain the Free State in their recent Toyota Challenge derby against the Griffons.
The Junior Springbok, Annies, who won the 2024 Varsity Cup with the UFS Shimlas in April, is a player who has grown leaps and bounds and each game he showed a marked improvement. The next stop for the Cheetahs is the 2024/25 ECPR Challenge Cup which will once again signal the start of the team’s season.
Going from student rugby to play in the second biggest club competition is going to be a
gruelling challenge for the speedy and fleet-footed Annies, but is one that excites him.
“It has been a long campaign and we as the youngsters had to make a big step-up,” Annies told Bloemfontein Courant.
“It wasn’t the perfect season, as we had pictured something else, but as a player I learnt a lot from it. This season I learnt a lot throughout from the older players.
“I see us definitely doing much better in the EPCR Challenge Cup – we are starting to gel a bit more as a team and finding our rhythm in our new plan. I think that things will go well for us in the EPCR. For me as a player it is important to grow and learn from the experienced players and coaches.
“I’m looking forward to playing in the Challenge Cup, but it is going to be tough playing in Europe against international players and challenging conditions. That just makes me look forward to it even more.”
The Cheetahs will get together in November as they prepare to head back to Europe where they will play out of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The players will have a personalised training regime they will have to follow. A warm-up game at the end of November will be played against the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria. The Cheetahs will kick off their European campaign on 8 December 2024, against Perpignan (France) in Amsterdam. – MORGAN PIEK
