Lions maul Kings in thriller
Coach has ‘firm discussion’ with team
DISAPPOINTED Southern Kings coach Deon Davids showed his players a red card saying they had let themselves down when they crashed to a 42-19 Super Rugby loss against the Lions.
A clearly upset Davids said he had held a “firm discussion” with his team who must take accountability after a defeat which saw the Lions run in six tries at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.
Livewire Kings loose forward Andisa Ntsila gave the home crowd of 4 700 early hope when he sprinted over the tryline after charging down a lazy Lions clearance in the first minute.
But the lead was short-lived and the Lions turned up the heat scoring five first-half tries to virtually take the game beyond the Kings’ reach.
The result means the Kings are still searching for an elusive first win over South African opposition in Super Rugby.
“As I am sitting here I am very disappointed with the performance of the team today. I just think that we let ourselves down,” Davids said.
“The game is very simple. You can only win games when you have good possession and I think our scrums and lineouts let us down throughout the game.
“We were a bit asleep in the first half, but we improved in the second half with a much better performance. If you play against quality sides like this if you are not focused and get things right from the start you will stand behind the poles. That is what happened to us in the first half.
“We looked more energised with the minimum possession in the second half and we looked quite good with ball in hand.
“But then again we lost some patience in the opposition 22 by not holding onto the ball for long phases until the opportunity arises. We forced play with ill decisions with our kicks and that is something we need to improve on.
“We have got exciting backs to run the ball with, but if you don’t get quality ball from your set pieces you are always going to struggle.
“The Kings must take a hard look at this. We have had a firm discussion about this now and we need to take accountability around this to ensure that we get better outcomes from our set pieces,” Davids said.
New Kings captain Lionel Cronje said he would try to look at the positives after his team’s fourth defeat in the competition.
“I think we came out and played positive rugby in the second half. At 35-12 down at half-time we knew we needed to score two tries to get ourselves back in the game,” Cronje said,
“We did that and scored a good attacking try after half-time. If we had scored another try we would have been back in it.
“I’m going to look at the positives and I think we held the ball really well in the second half and we can improve and grow from that.
“I think the team got a lot of energy from the little of ball we got. And getting the ball wide energised us and gave us a lot of metres on the outside,” Cronje said.
Asked how he had enjoyed his first game in charge of the team, Cronje said: “For me I would have liked to have started with a win because we have very high standards at the Kings.
“We want to win rugby matches and please the crowds and get people to come to the stadium to watch a good game of rugby. It is what it is and we just have to move forward.”
After his opening try the energetic Ntsila then sparked the Kings’ second five-pointer when he broke free down the touchline before passing to flying wing Yaw Penxe who scored on debut after 18 minutes.
Flying Kings fullback Malcolm Jaer brought smiles to the faces of home supporters when he sliced through the Lions defence to score his team’s third five pointer after 43 minutes to reduce the Lions’ lead.
Point scorers: Southern Kings 19: Tries: Andisa Ntsila, Yaw Penxe, Malcolm Jaer. Conversions: Lionel Cronje (2). Lions 42: Tries: Madosh Tambwe (2), Malcolm Marx, Elton Jantjies, Jaco Kriel, Harold Vorster. Conversions: Jantjies (5) Andries Coetzee.