Cheetahs skin Leopards

The Cheetahs romped to their second win of the Currie Cup season on Friday with a 71-17 demolition of the Leopards in Potchefstroom.

The Cheetahs romped to their second win of the Currie Cup season on Friday with a 71-17 demolition of the Leopards in Potchefstroom.

The visitors from Bloemfontein scored eleven tries to lay the ghosts of kicking rugby from the past few weeks to rest.

The Cheetahs were 38-3 up at half-time but lost some momentum and the Leopards staged a mini-fight back by playing the second 40 minutes without a player marched off with a yellow card.

Full-back Russell Jeacocks scored two tries, but it was little consolation for the visitors, who were outplayed by a more enterprising outfit.

Past lessons weren't taken to heart and when Leopards scrum-half Theo van Wyk was sent off with a yellow in the first half, Cheetahs coach Naka Drotské ordered three tries from his troops. And he got three.

The score escalated from 17-0 to 38-0 within 10 minutes and at that stage the visitors were scoring more than a point per minute.

The Cheetahs ran the ball at will and by being direct they created enough space for speedsters Jongi Nokwe and Danwell Demas, who looked like race horses against some pedestrian defenders.

The Cheetahs would probably like to take that left-hand corner of Olën Park where they ran in four of their first five tries back to Bloemfontein.

The Scorers

For the Leopards:
Tries: Jeacocks 2
Cons: Durand 2
Pen: Durand

For the Cheetahs:
Tries: Demas 2, Jonker 2, Nokwe 2, Breedt 2, R. Ebersohn, JP Joubert, Wessels.
Cons: Potgieter 5, Strydom 3

Yellow card: T. Van Wyk (Leopards)

Free State Cheetahs: 15 Hennie Daniller, 14 Danwel Demas, 13 JW Jonker, 12 Robert Ebersohn, 11 Jongi Nokwe, 10 Jacques-Louis Potgieter, 9 JP Joubert, 8 Francois Uys, 7 Frans Viljoen, 6 Johan Wessels, 5 Izak van der Westhuizen, 4 Nico Breedt, 3 WP Nel, 2 Adriaan Strauss (c), 1 Coenie Oosthuizen.
Replacements: 16 Richardt Strauss, 17 Jean Botha, 18 Waltie vermeulen, 19 Kabamba Floors, 20 Tertius Carse, 21 Louis Strydom, 22 Phillip Snyman.

Leopards: 15 Russell Jeacocks; 14 Jovan Bowles, 13 Deon van Rensburg, 12 Berndt Theissinger, 11 Danie Dames; 10 Clayton Durand, 9 Theo van Wyk; 8 RW Kember, 7 Bennie Adams, 6 André Swanepoel (c), 5 Draad Linde, 4 Rudi Mathee, 3 Os van der Walt, 2 Gavin Williamson, 1 Divan Kotze.
Replacements: 16 Philip Lemmer, 17 Nardus Lombard, 18 Anthonie Gronum, 19 Ligtoring Landman, 20 Chris Erasmus, 21 Bom Samaai, 22 Cecil Dumont.

Referee: Phillip Bosch