Cheetahs coach Frans Steyn has demanded an 80-minute performance from his side against Georgia’s Black Lion in Bloemfontein on Sunday.

The Cheetahs suffered a 39-38 defeat in the first match of the Challenge series, which serves as preparation for the EPCR Challenge Cup. They led 21-15 at half time, but Black Lion stormed back to take an eight-point lead.

The hosts hit back through replacement hooker Marko Janse van Rensburg from a rolling maul before winger Prince Nkabinde dived over in the corner after a powerful line-out drive. However, Cohen Jasper’s touchline conversion went wide.

“At half time, I thought we were going to give them a hiding,” said Steyn. “And after half time, it felt like we lost energy and the urgency to finish them off – urgency to get more points, urgency in all areas of the game.

“We talk about the graveyard; this is our home, and we need to make that count. We didn’t do that the past weekend.”

FRANS: I’m letting the team and fans down

Steyn said the defeat exposed long-standing issues.

“There were a lot of individual errors and even through the Currie Cup we talked about it, and last weekend it bit us. We need to start winning. We want to build a nice place where everybody wants to come and play. But if we don’t win, it’s not good enough.”

He also emphasised the importance of these matches for building momentum and testing combinations.

“We don’t have a lot of games before the EPCR, so we need to give players game time to see where we are,” he said. “We’ve got a nice squad, good people here, and I think we let them down last week. We need to be more consistent through 80 minutes.”

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The Cheetahs will face the Lions in a warm-up match at Ellis Park on 20 November, before kicking off their Challenge Cup campaign against the Exeter Chiefs at Sandy Park on 7 December.

Sunday’s match will kick off at 3pm after a legends match between the Cheetahs and Bulls at 12:30pm.

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