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Durban – It’s the battle of the breakdown and the battle of the breakdown specialists as the Cheetahs’ Heinrich Brüssow and the Cell C Sharks’ Marcell Coetzee will be going head-to-head in today’s Vodacom Super Rugby clash at Kings Park.Brüssow is back in action from injury following his return from Japan while Coetzee’s energetic efforts have earned him massive praise (as well as two Vodacom Man of the Match awards this season already).
“Heinrich Brussow is a great player, he’s played really well for them,” director of rugby Jake White admits, “and they will get a lot of confidence out of him being back.
“It’s no different to us when we pick our big name players, it gives us a massive boost. But we’ve played against the Michael Hoopers, the Liam Gills, the Deon Stegmanns, and the challenge is making sure whoever is in that open side role, must be looked after.
“We have Marcell Coetzee, so I’m sure they have their concerns as well. Marcell has proved himself. More and more, his plays send the right message to the national selectors that they don’t need to look abroad to pick a guy who can do that job when you have one doing the job week in and week out in Super Rugby.
“I would be very surprised if, going forward, he doesn’t get to be seen as the guy who can fulfil that role over anyone they’ve picked from outside.”
And having someone attack the breakdown hard, as he does, in concert with Bismarck du Plessis, means regular turnovers which are like gold for a defending team.
Especially when it presents an opportunity to catch the opposition in attacking mode when they’re suddenly required to defend.
“I don’t think the tries they’ve conceded are soft moments at all, but when you’re so focused on attack and turn the ball over, everyone is running support lines to the ball-carrier,” White explains.
“If you look at last year’s success, this year they’ve been a bit unlucky when they’ve turned the ball over.”
The Cheetahs were involved in two very high-scoring matches in their last two games, a cumulative total of 169 points which suggests (correctly) a lot of tries and open, running rugby.
But it can be dangerous when you’re caught out. And that’s something the Cell C Sharks are well-aware of, that they can’t be sucked into a style of play that suits the Cheetahs.
“We generally want to play to our strengths, we know what we’re good at, what works for us. We have a massive pack of forwards and probably the strongest scrum in the competition, and we need to stick to that. ” — Sport24
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