Cheetahs assistant coach Hawies Fourie has called on his charges to be aggressive against the Blue Bulls and disrupt their pattern of play at Loftus Versfeld this weekend.

Despite the fact that they won comfortably the Cheetahs were not happy with their performance against the Leopards last week, and Fourie expects them to lift their game when they take on the Men from Pretoria this weekend - as they usually do.

He explained to this website: "We always play well against the Bulls, in the Super 15 this year we lost by small margins both at home and away. We were 23-8 up with 10 or 15 minutes to go in Bloemfontein, so we have got a way of playing them.

"On defence you know what is coming your way, you have just got to be aggressive and get off the line and meet them halfway. We are going to be looking to break their patterns up and give them slow ball , if you can do that then any team is vulnerable," said Fourie.

The Cheetahs' backline mentor was impressed with the way that the Sharks nullified the Blue Bulls' strengths in their season opener in Durban last week and is hoping for a similar display from his side this weekend.

He commented: "The Sharks played really well and used every opportunity they got to score tries. Even that cheeky little cross-kick from Michalak worked for them so the Sharks were very good on attack and they defended well.

"The Bulls struggled a little bit to get their rhythm going because of the Sharks' aggression on defence. They put the Bulls under a lot of pressure and they really missed their big ball carriers," added Fourie.

However, Fourie is all too aware that the Blue Bulls will not roll over for any team and he expects them to tighten up considerably this week in their first home game of the campaign.

He said: "They will definitely work hard on a lot of aspects of their game this week so I expect to see a much-improved side this weekend at Loftus."

Despite this, there is only one goal in mind for the Cheetahs - to return to Bloemfontein with four log points in the bag.

"We want to finish on top of the log and if you want to do that then you have to win away games against the top teams. So that is definitely our aim, we want to go and win at Loftus and get at least four points from the game," said Fourie.

By Michael de Vries