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Pienaar's Cheetahs tour to Ireland coincides with poignant family anniversary

(Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)

Cheetahs skipper Ruan Pienaar will arrive in Ireland this week looking to turn a poignant family anniversary into on-field success in the Guinness PRO14.

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Leinster are currently on a record-setting 16-match winning streak that has earned them the No1 seeding for the Heineken Champions Cup knockout stages and has them eleven points clear of Ulster and 16 ahead of Cheetahs in Conference A in the league. 

However, Pienaar will look to guide Cheetahs to a rare away success on Saturday, the same day that marks the first anniversary of the tragic death of his sister Rene at the age of just 38. 

She was killed in a four-vehicle accident on a road on South Africa’s Western Cape and the effect on the ex-Springbok was profound, resulting in him moving back to Bloemfontein from Montpellier in order to be closer to his parents and extended family.  

Pienaar told RugbyPass in November: “It brings life into perspective and what really is important. It is important to have that in a rugby environment as well. Although it is our job and we want to do it as well as we possibly can, there are bigger things in life and behind the rugby player there is a person and they go through all the different challenges outside of rugby as well.”

(Continue reading below…)

Ruan Pienaar appeared in Nadolo, the RugbyPass documentary on Fijian legend Nemani Nadolo

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Cheetahs’ fixture at Leinster is the first part of a two-part visit to Ireland, as they face Pienaar’s former club Ulster the following Friday, and the ex-Test level scrum-half is hopeful of a winning start. “They [Leinster] have built something really good over the last few years and they keep the ball really well,” said Pienaar before flying out from Bloemfontein. 

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“Their workrate is good and they work really hard for each other, so it is hard to find a weakness but there has to be a day where you can pounce. For us, we have to focus on our game, what we want to do and hopefully that is good enough to get a result.

“We know they have a big squad of quality players that they can choose from. They have in the past had players away in Six Nations and they haven’t dropped in terms of their quality. As a young group of players, we see it as a massive challenge and we are looking forward to playing them.

“That is why we play in the competition – we get challenged every week and that is how we grow as a team. So yes, we expect a tough Leinster team even though they may be missing a few players.

“We know we will be challenged, we will be tested and for us as a group that is something we really need at this stage. We are positive, we have worked really hard in the last couple of weeks and we have to just focus on what we have to do and how to handle those pressure moments and score when we have the chance.”

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WATCH: The Rugby Pod reflects on the round two weekend in the Guinness Six Nations 

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J
JW 2 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Where? I remember saying "unders"? The LNR was formed by the FFR, if I said that in a way that meant the 'pro' side of the game didn't have an equal representation/say as the 'amateur' side (FFR remit) that was not my intent.


But also, as it is the governing body, it also has more responsibility. As long as WR looks at FFR as the running body for rugby in France, that 'power' will remain. If the LNR refuses to govern their clubs use of players to enable a request by FFR (from WR) to ensure it's players are able to compete in International rugby takes place they will simply remove their participation. If the players complain to the France's body, either of their health and safety concerns (through playing too many 'minutes' etc) or that they are not allowed to be part in matches of national interest, my understanding is action can be taken against the LNR like it could be any other body/business. I see where you're coming from now re EPCR and the shake up they gave it, yes, that wasn't meant to be a separate statement to say that FFR can threaten them with EPCR expulsion by itself, simply that it would be a strong repercussion for those teams to be removed (no one would want them after the above).


You keep bringing up these other things I cannot understand why. Again, do you think if the LNR were not acting responsibly they would be able to get away with whatever they want (the attitude of these posters saying "they pay the players")? You may deem what theyre doing currently as being irresponsible but most do not. Countries like New Zealand have not even complained about it because they've never had it different, never got things like windfall TV contracts from France, so they can't complain because theyre not missing out on anything. Sure, if the French kept doing things like withholding million dollar game payments, or causing millions of dollars of devaluation in rights, they these things I'm outlining would be taking place. That's not the case currently however, no one here really cares what the French do. It's upto them to sort themselves out if they're not happy. Now, that said, if they did make it obvious to World Rugby that they were never going to send the French side away (like they possibly did stating their intent to exclude 20 targeted players) in July, well then they would simply be given XV fixtures against tier 2 sides during that window and the FFR would need to do things like the 50/50 revenue split to get big teams visiting in Nov.

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