Injured Zono to miss Kings-Edinburgh showdown
FORMER Border Bulldogs and current Southern Kings pivot Oliver Zono will miss Friday’s PRO14 match against Edinburgh after suffering concussion against Scarlets on Sunday.
Zono left the field at the start of the second half at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium after playing an influential role in the Kings building an early lead over the Welshmen.
Zono was replaced by Kurt Coleman, who is now expected to start against Edinburgh when the Kings bid to snap a nine-match losing streak.
Another Kings casualty in the game was Jurie van Vuuren, who suffered a broken nose and it is unsure whether he will be able to take his place in the team to face Edinburgh.
After the Scarlets game, Kings head coach Deon Davids said discipline and conceding soft penalties were proving costly for his team.
A concerned Davids was talking after his team were edged 34-30 by champions Scarlets in a close contest.
“One aspect we must improve on is our discipline,” Davids said.
“On occasions we too easily concede penalties for something like a high tackle, not rolling away after a tackle or errors at the breakdown.
“We must rid our game of those small elementary mistakes that allow the opposition to easily get out of their own half and create set pieces in our half.
“That allows the opposition to create chances and register points. Those are areas where the young men are learning lessons. If we can eliminate this, we will be in a better position.”
Davids said his team would not have much time to find solutions before they face Edinburgh.
“This is a short turnaround for us and we have a short week. Monday is a recovery day after Sunday’s game against Scarlets. We then have two days of training.
“We have got to look and come to solutions very quickly and ensure that the boys are fresh and focused for the next game against Edinburgh. The Kings will revisit the areas we need to improve.”
After leading 16-10 at the break, the Kings could not hang on for victory against a Scarlets side who were missing 15 players on international duty.
“I will look at the video and see what happened in that 10 to 15 minutes after halftime when we lost a bit of initiative.
“There were some good stuff, but there we some small fundamental aspects of our play that need attention. Things like making a pass here and there and poor concentration on one and one defence let us down .
“That is stuff that we have to keep working on. The guys must understand that if you make elementary mistakes at critical times, when you lose concentration, then you will concede points.
“This was another one we let slip and we had enough chances which we should have used better. Also, in the first half, I was not happy with the way we managed the game.
“We struggled a bit in the first half to get direction and to execute like we wanted to. At times, there was also a lot of space behind the opposition and they had a strong defensive line.
“I think in the first half we put ourselves under pressure because we played too much in our own half.”