Roar Guru
The Cheetahs have triumphed comfortably over the Sunwolves 47-7 in Tokyo.
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Final score
Sunwolves 7
Cheetahs 47
The Sunwolves and Cheetahs are set to do battle at the Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium in Tokyo for the final round of Super Rugby before the international break. Join The Roar for live scores and blog, starting from 3:15pm AEST.
It’s a bottom of the table clash, with both sides languishing in the Africa 1 conference. The Sunwolves will be keen to impress at home, coming off a loss to the Sharks. The Cheetahs, meanwhile, must improve on last week’s shambles when they were swept away 61-7 by the Hurricanes.
Both coaches have shuffled their squads as they search for that elusive winning formula. The home side have a new look backrow, having lost their main man at lineout time ‒ Willie Britz ‒ to concussion.
For the Cheetahs, hooker Torsten van Jaarsfeld takes over captaincy duties from the injured Francois Venter, whose spot in the centres goes to William Small-Smith.
Though both sides have had forgettable seasons in terms of results, there’ll be no shortage of attacking flair on show.
Sergeal Peterson is always a threat on the wing for the visitors, while Clayton Blommetjies ranks eighth in the competition for run metres.
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The Sunwolves will hope to get more from Kotaru Matsushima at fullback, who is somehow yet to cross the chalk this season.
The last meeting between these teams saw the Cheetahs get up 38-31 in a thrilling encounter in Bloemfontein.
With both sides now out of finals contention and playing for pride, expect an open game and not a whole lot of defence.
Prediction
All signs point to a high-scoring shootout. Expect to see some coast-to-coast running, ambitious offloading, and turnstile defending. My head says the Cheetahs could boss the game if they get ascendancy at set piece time, but my heart is backing a narrow win for the Sunwolves in front of their home fans.
Join The Roar for live scores and blog, starting from 3:15pm AEST.