The Free State Cheetahs booked their place in the Currie Cup play-offs with a nine-try rout of the hapless Boland Cavaliers in Wellington on Saturday.

The 55-10 win saw the Cheetahs overtake Griquas in fourth place, after the latter lost 30-45 to the Sharks in Kimberley at the same time that the Cheetahs demolished the Cavaliers.

It was an amazing comeback by the Cheetahs this season, after they lost their first four matches, and then lost just another two in the next 10 weeks.

The Cheetahs and Griquas both ended the season on 40 points, but the Cheetahs had a points difference of 205 to the Griquas's -43 — allowing the men from Bloemfontein to sneak into the semis.

For Boland, their 13th loss means they finish bottom of the Premier Division log with five points.

They will now host the Pumas in Wellington on October 24 in the first of two promotion-relegation matches, before travelling to Witbank a week later for the return fixture.

The Cheetahs were clinical against the Cavaliers, scoring nine tries to one in a one-sided contest that featured outstanding individual performances by Bok flanker Heinrich Brussow, who scored a brace, and rampaging No.8 Ashley Johnson, whose international aspirations were advanced on a hot afternoon.

The Cheetahs opened the scoring in the ninth minute when Brussow burrowed over from a line-out drive after the Bolanders had infringed at scrum time.

Flyhalf Louis Strydom added the extra points.

The visitors then scored their second seven minutes later when excellent driving work by tighthead prop Coenie Oosthuizen in particular led to space out wide for centre Meyer Bosman to exploit.

The former Bok centre drew the defence before slipping a crisp pass that put winger Jongi Nokwe in at the corner unopposed.

The Cavaliers opened their account in the 19th minute when flyhalf Danre Gerber kicked a penalty.

Brussow then snatched his second try in identical fashion to his first when the Boland defence disintegrated from another line-out penalty catch-and-drive after 25 minutes.

Strydom was again on target with the extra points to make it 19-3.

Scrumhalf Tewis de Bruyn then grabbed the bonus point five minutes before the break after more sustained pressure on the Boland line.

Nokwe scored his second four minutes into first-half injury time after a simple backline move but the Bok flyer looked to have done himself an injury when trying to stop himself from running into an iron fence behind the dead ball line.

After the break, the visitors ran in another five tries to overwhelm the locals, who could only respond with a single try by Gerber, which he converted himself.

Man of the match: He has come along very nicely in the latter half of the season and our Man of the Match Ashley Johnson may well receive a call-up to the Springboks' year-end tour.

The scorers:

For the Boland Cavaliers:
Try: Gerber
Con: Gerber
Pen: Gerber

For the Free State Cheetahs:
Tries: Brussow 2, Nokwe 2, De Bruyn, Viljoen, Jonker, Juries 2
Cons: Strydom 5

Teams:

Boland Cavaliers: 15 Hayden Groepes, 14 Deon Scholtz, 13 Cornal Hendricks, 12 PJ Vermeulen, 11 Wendal Wehr, 10 Danre Gerber, 9 Charlie King, 8 Junior Bester, 7 Hilton Lobberts, 6 David Hendricks, 5 Rito Hlungwane (captain), 4 Nico Esterhuyse, 3 Jacobie Adriaanse, 2 Harry Vermaas, 1 Janro van Niekerk.

Replacements: 16 Clemen Lewis, 17 Michael de Neuilly-Rice, 18 George Earl, 19 Angelo Brinkhuys, 20 Danie van der Merwe, 21 Dewey Swartbooi, 22 Elgar Watts.

Free State Cheetahs: 15 Hennie Daniller, 14 Danwel Demas, 13 Corne Uys, 12 Meyer Bosman, 11 Jongi Nokwe, 10 Louis Strydom, 9 Tewis de Bruyn, 8 Ashley Johnson, 7 Frans Viljoen, 6 Heinrich Brussow, 5 David de Villiers, 4 Nico Breedt (captain), 3 Coenie Oosthuizen, 2 Richardt Strauss, 1 Wian du Preez.

Replacements: 16 WP Nel, 17 Izak van der Westhuizen, 18 Hendro Scholtz, 19 Lucas Floors , 20 JP Joubert, 21 JW Jonker, 22 Fabian Juries.

Referee: Joey Salmans
Assistant referees: Matt Kemp, Marc van Zyl
TMO: JC Fortuin