Seventh title heaven for Cheetahs as gutsy effort earns them Currie Cup success against Pumas

At the Free State Stadium, Mangaung

Another World Cup-year Currie Cup final led to another title success for the Cheetahs, who stayed in the game long enough and played well enough to beat the defending champions, the Pumas, 25-17 at the Free State Stadium in Mangaung on Saturday.

In scoring three tries to one, the Cheetahs did the business to collect their seventh title and proved themselves kings of the domestic circuit.

The success should be sufficient for them to stake a claim for another opportunity to take part in the EPCR Challenge Cup, with the tournament now clearly needing to be seen as a qualification pathway for the Currie Cup sides.

That could work against the Cheetahs in years where they don't win the tournament, but they did on a heady Saturday afternoon where they played in front of a crowd of 33804 that was initially obedient, but disgraced themselves with an unnecessary pitch invasion at the end.

The game started off in a feverish atmosphere when an Airlink Boeing made two flyovers over the ground, leaving the three-quarter packed stadium startled in disbelief and happiness.

The plane flew over the stadium just after kick-off and the players were able to blank out an event that should have at least taken place before kick-off.

AS IT HAPPENED | Cheetahs v Pumas

It did add to the spectacle and so did the Harley Davidson bikes that formed a tunnel for the Cheetahs players, while a small tractor-driven carriage for the kids made a small turn and quickly got off the field before the players came on.

Once the pre- and early-match theatrics came and went, the players went about their playing business at a very high tempo.

There wasn't a lot of tactical ingenuity in the first 10 minutes, but the ideas from the teams