Kings are in good nick after victory

A MASSIVE boost in self-belief and a spike in home crowd support could be spin-offs for the Southern Kings after they thrashed the Dragons to end a 16-game Pro14 losing streak.

That is the view of Dragons coach Bernard Jackman after his team crashed to a heavy 45-13 defeat against the Kings at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium last weekend.

Jackman’s side were outscored by six tries to one as the Kings finally got on the winning track.

“When you are not winning regularly, you have a lot of doubt and you also lack a bit of self-belief,” said Jackman.

“The Kings have played all their away matches, so they do not have to go back to the cold in Europe. They will get massive belief from this win over us and hopefully get some more fans.

“When you win there is a feel-good factor and confidence is lifted. The Kings have been through a hard time and they had no pre-season. It is not easy to go over to Europe and deal with the weather conditions.”

Jackman, whose team are also struggling this season, had predicted that the Kings would target his side.

Despite their win, the Kings are still bottom of the log with nine points, while the Dragons are a place above them on 17 points.

“We could see the danger they would present after watching their earlier games. Against the Ospreys they could have won the game easily, but they were under pressure at scrum time.

“I was very disappointed with our performance, but we have to give credit to the Kings who did not allow us to play.”

Jackman is in the first year at the helm after being brought in by new owners the Welsh Rugby Union last summer to replace Kingsley Jones.

Jackman has recruited heavily for next season and believes a poor first season won’t impact on year two. “We need to understand where we are at and we need to go from worst to first. We have got to have a root and branch rebuild, and that’s why it’s better to know where you are at,” he said.

“The worst thing that could happen was to have a couple of decent wins that stops us from making the hard decisions that need to be made if we want to be successful.”