Vodacom Super Rugby
Naka: Don't expect any favours
2011-06-02 16:10
Johannesburg - The Cheetahs are undeterred after the Bulls brought their four-match winning streak to an end in last weekend's Super Rugby clash in Pretoria.
Cheetahs coach Naka Drotské said on Thursday his team are not in the business of handing out favours.
With this, he sent out a warning to the Sharks who need a win against the Cheetahs to keep their hopes alive of reaching the Super Rugby quarterfinals.
"We want to win every single game and are not looking any further than this weekend's game against the Sharks," said Drotské.
The Cheetahs' impressive four-week run gave the team a glimmer of hope in reaching the next round of the competition until their dreams were shattered by a clinical Bulls' outfit which stormed to a 32-21 win against them.
The Cheetahs could, nonetheless, still achieve their most successful season in their Super Rugby history.
They are stacking the records and, with five wins so far in the bag, they are on a par with their 2006 and 2010 achievements.
Their four-match winning streak is also the most number of victories they have ever managed on the trot.
Drotské, however, still lamented the games which slipped through their fingers earlier in the season, and could have made 2011 an historical year for the Bloemfontein side.
He conceded that the Bulls outsmarted his team at the line-outs where the Cheetahs had suffered a string of injuries in the number five position.
"They put us under pressure at the line-outs but everyone targets each other at the set phases and so do we," he said.
"We have some plans up our sleeve to counter the Sharks at the line-outs."
Meanwhile, the Cheetahs' injury woes continued this week with flanker Kabamba Floors suffering a major knee injury.
The coach said he expected Floors' injury could keep the fleet-footed flanker out for the rest of the year.
Floors joins an increasing list of injured Cheetahs players who include Wilhelm Steenkamp (knee), Philip van der Walt (knee), Andries Strauss (groin), Waltie Vermeulen (concussion) and Heinrich Brussow (hamstring).
The Cheetahs have lost three locks and six loose forwards to injury so far this year.
Drotské said the loss of Jean Deysel due to a suspension was a bad blow for the Sharks but they still have to keep an eye on the coastal team's athletic forwards.
"We will have to ensure that we keep the likes of Bismarck du Plessis and Willem Alberts behind the gain line," he said.