Cheetahs 'celebrate' bizarre return to Ellis Park ... 1 337 days later

Hawies Fourie will bizarrely visit Ellis Park for the first time on Friday night since becoming the Cheetahs' head coach ... way back in October 2019.

It's been an even longer wait for the team itself: a regular season encounter of the 2018 Currie Cup in September of that year, 1 337 days ago.

Indeed, the central franchise - the only unbeaten team in this year's Currie Cup - simply hasn't been destined to run out onto the hallowed turf because of freakish circumstances out of their control.

In 2020, shortly after the local game resumed from Covid-19's initial hard lockdown, their Super Rugby Unlocked match against the Lions was controversially cancelled mere hours before kick-off due to an outbreak in the hosts' camp.

Less than a year later, their Currie Cup encounter was called off due to the Doornfontein-based stadium's proximity to hotspots of the July unrest.

"I actually thought about that earlier this week," Fourie admitted on Thursday.

"It's been a really long time. It's the first time in three seasons that we're going to play at Ellis Park again. It's always a great experience because it's such an iconic stadium with an amazing history.

"It's a privilege to play there."

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Yet as much as there's a bit of sentimentality around the occasion, the Cheetahs are wary of letting it distract them.

In fact, they're acutely aware that they are facing desperate opponents who, in complete contrast to them, have lost all 7 of their fixtures.

"We decided quite a while back already that we don't want to focus on our unbeaten status," said Fourie. 

"Those are dangerous thoughts. It puts unnecessary extra pressure on any team. You don't want to dwell on it because