Flanker Wikus van Heerden led the Cats to their first Super 12 win of the season on Saturday as the bottom-of-the-log team held off New Zealand's Waikato Chiefs 23-21 at Ellis Park.

From the first kick-off, he burst through three tackles to put his team on to the front foot.

There was more of the same from Van Heerden throughout the match, and he was assisted by some powerful running from locks Gerrie Britz and Boela du Plooy.

While the Cats drew first blood with a penalty after five minutes, they soon sank back into their old ways of aimless passing, poor ball handling and directionless kicking.

But the Chiefs were unable to convert all those errors into points until well into the second quarter, when David Hill kicked a penalty and Lome Fa'atau scored a try to put them into an 8-3 halftime lead.

"We were always one or two phases away from breaking through," Chiefs captain Jonno Gibbes said. "But once the Cats got some quick points in the second half, we were always in trouble."

"It took a big team effort to win this," Van Heerden said.

Two tries in the second half - one a beauty from the left from winger Jorrie Muller to finally turn a shocking season around, and the other by big centre Jacque Fourie after a rare period of the Cats holding on to attacking ball - made the Chiefs' task more difficult.

By the time replacement No. 8 Sione Lauaki barged over from a penalty in the final minute of the match, it was all too late.

Former Springbok wing Chester Williams, who replaced Australian coach Tim Lane three weeks ago at the helm of the Cats after a poor run overseas, said: "We needed a win, but we are going to have to concentrate hard on our match next week against the Crusaders - maybe we can do the other South African teams a favour."

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