Brave Southern Kings go down fighting to the Chiefs

01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author

Southern Kings vs Chiefs

Final score: Chiefs 35 Kings 24

The Southern Kings may have lost the match but they won the war. Despite going down 35-24 to the defending champion Chiefs at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Friday night, the Kings earned a lot of respect and admirers from this display. They never gave up in the face of one of the top teams in world rugby. The Chiefs scored two tries in the first half and led 18-13 at the break. Sergeal Petersen scored a breakaway try on 40 minutes to offer the Kings some huge relief because they had been battered into near submission in the final ten minutes of the first stanza. The Chiefs also had their fair share of luck. A try by right wing Lelia Masaga clearly featured two blatant forward passes which the TMO somehow couldn’t pick up??

In the second half – the Chiefs extended their lead to 32-13 with two quick tries in the 51st and 53rd minutes. Amazingly, it was all the Kings after that and a Jacques Engelbrecht try followed by two Demetri Catrakilis penalties closed the gap to 32-24 with 9 minutes remaining. Could the Kings find another score and at least sneak an improbable bonus point out of the match. Sadly, no. With a minute on the clock and clearly happy that they already had the four-try bonus points, the Chiefs took one final spiteful shot at goal to walk away 35-24 winners. The Southern Kings players can hold their heads up high but there are going to be a lot of sore bodies on the plane this weekend. Their next assignment is in New Zealand and it is against the 7-time Super Rugby Champions the Crusaders. The honeymoon is over but the Kings have shown in three heady games that they are here to fight tooth and nail every single step of the way.