With the Guinness PRO14 competition suspended indefinitely due to the world-wide COVID-19 pandemic, the Toyota Cheetahs have turned their focus to conditioning during the nationwide lockdown in South Africa, with an eye on being in the best possible shape should they return to the field. It remains to be seen whether the Guinness PRO14 will continue in a revised format later in the season or whether the focus will shift to a local competition, but Toyota Cheetahs coach Hawies Fourie says regardless of the outcome, their aim is to gain momentum as quickly as possible once they are able to resume training. He admits that it has been challenging to coach during lockdown given the players’ vastly different training environments at home, but Fourie is adamant that their conditioning standards will not slide. *“There is obviously uncertainty around certain competitions, but that has not stopped us from continuing to put in the hard yards,”* said Fourie. *“The key for us now is to build on our fitness levels, so every player has a training programme that they need to follow. It has been good to see how innovative they have been, especially given the different circumstances with some of them on farms and others in apartments.* *“The players regularly send through videos and have been motivating one another, which has been great. We know where each player was in terms of their fitness and strength before the lockdown, so they know what targets they have to reach when they return, although strength training could be a challenge because of the lack of weights at home.”*
