An upset Frans Steyn, Toyota Cheetahs Director of Rugby, did not hold back in his reaction following their dramatic 38-39 loss to Black Lion on Friday in Bloemfontein.
Steyn, who said on several occasions that the Cheetahs deserve to play in the United Rugby Championship, admitted that the Cheetahs aren’t doing themselves any favours.
“You can’t tell me that those guys are better than the players we have. We can call it rustiness and all those other factors. We can’t keep making excuses every time.”
“I need to sort it out to go forward because, at the moment, there are some non-negotiable things. I’m a bit angry tonight, but I must sort it out this coming week.”
“I’m taking this one on the chin. I need to sort some stuff out, and we need to do it very quickly. I don’t feel we’re getting better, and we have to make some changes in how we do things during the week.”
“I’ll sort it out this week, and hopefully we’ll put in a better performance next week. We need to.”
“We keep on getting these opportunities to showcase why we should play in the URC, but we keep messing it up, and we need to fix it.”
Commenting on the positives, Steyn said: “It’s a team sport. Whatever decision the guys take, I’ll back them 100%. I don’t mind going for the corner or whatever option is on. I think we had it in us to win and to put in a good performance. But we didn’t do that tonight. We need to figure out how to get what we do at training onto the field on game day.”
“When we get something positive, we need to fight harder to keep them out. If everyone makes a mistake, that’s 15 or 23 errors in a game; it’s too much. Our mistakes cost us, and they turned them into points.”