The last time the Cheetahs played at home‚ they hid behind the fact there were factors far beyond their control when they lost to the Sharks.
At the time‚ there was the significant matter of the Super Rugby guillotine hanging over them.
That particular blade has already fallen‚ even though the identity of the two South African franchises to be culled is not very clear.
They will have no excuse to hide behind if they cop a hiding against the Chiefs on Saturday afternoon.
The New Zealanders will be writhing from their 34-26 loss to the Stormers in a game of the ages at Newlands on Saturday.
With defence being a serious problem for Franco Smith's side‚ they could be in for a long afternoon and Smith has made some changes to stem what could be an open rugby wound.
Ox Nche‚ Johan Coetzee‚ Carl Wegner‚ Niel Marais and Sergeal Petersen are the five changes Smith had made to the side that took a beating at the hands of the Stormers.
The shoring up of the front row is telling because the Cheetahs struggled in his department in their South African derbies.
As feisty as the Chiefs can be‚ they may not have the requisite scrumming firepower to deal with the Cheetahs‚ but they have strengths in other areas that more than outweigh their scrumming deficiencies.
Smith was loath to say they were focussing on the Chiefs but they have their hands full in terms of getting their own attacking and defensive houses in shape.
The former department is not one to worry about but it's another story facing a New Zealand side on the back of a 50-point hiding in a South African derby.
“We know what a quality team the Chiefs are and we need to afford them quite a lot of respect‚" Smith said.
"We need to go into the game with a better mindset and we need to focus on our own things.
"We know we need to sort out our attack‚ defence and our first phases before we can proceed to anything else.”
Cheetahs: 15 Clayton Blommetjies‚ 14 Sergeal Petersen‚ 13 Francois Venter (captain)‚ 12 Nico Lee‚ 11 Raymond Rhule‚ 10 Niel Marais‚ 9 Shaun Venter‚ 8 Henco Venter‚ 7 Teboho Mohoje‚ 6 Paul Schoeman‚ 5 Carl Wegner‚ 4 Armandt Koster‚ 3 Johan Coetzee‚ 2 Torsten van Jaarsveld‚ 1 Retshegofaditswe Nche.
Replacements: 16 Elandré Huggett‚ 17 Charles Marais‚ 18 Tom Botha‚ 19 Francois Uys‚ 20 Niell Jordaan‚ 21 Junior Pokomela/Luther Obi‚ 22 Tian Meyer‚ 23 Fred Zeilinga
- TMG Digital/TMG Sport
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