Inspired by the full moon that shone over Bloemfontein and channelling the spirit of the Brave Blossoms who shocked the world with their defeat of the Springboks in Brighton in the 2015 World Cup, the Sunwolves ran the Cheetahs close but ultimately fell short.
Mindful of their embarrassing visit last year where they nearly copped a century, the Sunwolves surprised the hosts with a partially disciplined by highly effective lung-bursting effort.
The Sunwolves are not expected to win in Pretoria against a wounded Bulls side but will take heart from a vastly improved showing after defeats to the Hurricanes and the Southern Kings.
As for the Cheetahs, this was a massive comedown after their win against the Bulls and while they'll be happy with the points, their tactical naivety was exposed.
They bought knives to a gun-fight and only their superior physicality and their resilience saved them.
The New Zealand sides will be salivating when they come to the judicial capital if the Cheetahs continue with this scatter-brained approach.
A shock-induced pin-drop silence reverberated around Bloemfontein when Shota Emi sliced through weak Charles Marais and Zee Mkhabela tackles to score the game's first try in the first minute.
With their attempts to outrun the visitors patently not working, punching hard around the fringes worked for the hosts with Torsten van Jaarsveld's 15th minute and Teboho Mohoje's 36th minute touchdowns originating from slack pillar defence. Those two defensive brain fades were not enough to mask the Sunwolves' enterprising first stanza.
The Cheetahs were suckered into the unstructured nature of the Sunwolves' game plan and their defence fell into the same trap. This was apparent in Hayden Cripps's 25th minute try where the defence was stretched.
There was a slight controversy in the build-up to Cripps's try when Liaki Moli looked to have lost the ball in contact.
A similar thing happened with Clinton Swart's try when he was ruled to have lost contact with the ball in the act of grounding the pill.
While the Sunwolves started to show the strain of their high octane exploits with plenty of their players needing attention for cramp, they refused to back down with the diminutive left wing Kenki Fukuoka symbolising their tireless efforts.
His two tries caught the Cheetahs napping even though they responded with touchdowns from Clinton Swart and Ryno Benjamin.
The latter's 66th minute try was a case of using their numerical advantage after tighthead prop Takuma Asahara was sin-binned for killing the ball three minutes earlier.
That and Fred Zeilinga's 73rd minute penalty made the game safe for the hosts but shouldn't have been this close.
Scorers:
Cheetahs (38):
Tries: Torsten van Jaarsveld, Teboho Mohoje, Clinton Swart, Ryno Benjamin
Conversions: Fred Zeilinga (3)
Penalties: Zeilinga (4)
Sunwolves (31) :
Tries: Shota Emi, Hayden Cripps, Kenki Fukuoka (2)
Conversions: Cripps (2), JJ Taulagi (2)
Penalty: Cripps
- TMG Digital/TMG Sport
Cheetahs rack up successive wins with victory over Sunwolves
Inspired by the full moon that shone over Bloemfontein and channelling the spirit of the Brave Blossoms who shocked the world with their defeat of the Springboks in Brighton in the 2015 World Cup, the Sunwolves ran the Cheetahs close but ultimately fell short.
Mindful of their embarrassing visit last year where they nearly copped a century, the Sunwolves surprised the hosts with a partially disciplined by highly effective lung-bursting effort.
The Sunwolves are not expected to win in Pretoria against a wounded Bulls side but will take heart from a vastly improved showing after defeats to the Hurricanes and the Southern Kings.
As for the Cheetahs, this was a massive comedown after their win against the Bulls and while they'll be happy with the points, their tactical naivety was exposed.
They bought knives to a gun-fight and only their superior physicality and their resilience saved them.
The New Zealand sides will be salivating when they come to the judicial capital if the Cheetahs continue with this scatter-brained approach.
A shock-induced pin-drop silence reverberated around Bloemfontein when Shota Emi sliced through weak Charles Marais and Zee Mkhabela tackles to score the game's first try in the first minute.
With their attempts to outrun the visitors patently not working, punching hard around the fringes worked for the hosts with Torsten van Jaarsveld's 15th minute and Teboho Mohoje's 36th minute touchdowns originating from slack pillar defence. Those two defensive brain fades were not enough to mask the Sunwolves' enterprising first stanza.
The Cheetahs were suckered into the unstructured nature of the Sunwolves' game plan and their defence fell into the same trap. This was apparent in Hayden Cripps's 25th minute try where the defence was stretched.
There was a slight controversy in the build-up to Cripps's try when Liaki Moli looked to have lost the ball in contact.
A similar thing happened with Clinton Swart's try when he was ruled to have lost contact with the ball in the act of grounding the pill.
While the Sunwolves started to show the strain of their high octane exploits with plenty of their players needing attention for cramp, they refused to back down with the diminutive left wing Kenki Fukuoka symbolising their tireless efforts.
His two tries caught the Cheetahs napping even though they responded with touchdowns from Clinton Swart and Ryno Benjamin.
The latter's 66th minute try was a case of using their numerical advantage after tighthead prop Takuma Asahara was sin-binned for killing the ball three minutes earlier.
That and Fred Zeilinga's 73rd minute penalty made the game safe for the hosts but shouldn't have been this close.
Scorers:
Cheetahs (38):
Tries: Torsten van Jaarsveld, Teboho Mohoje, Clinton Swart, Ryno Benjamin
Conversions: Fred Zeilinga (3)
Penalties: Zeilinga (4)
Sunwolves (31) :
Tries: Shota Emi, Hayden Cripps, Kenki Fukuoka (2)
Conversions: Cripps (2), JJ Taulagi (2)
Penalty: Cripps
- TMG Digital/TMG Sport