Praise for feisty Kings despite loss to Lions

“WE WERE told that the EP Kings players decided that no matter what was happening off the field, they were going to play this game.

“And once a side makes a call to stick together, you know you’ll always be up against a dangerous team. They decided to do something together, not because of money, not because of agendas.”

These were Golden Lions coach Johan Ackermann’s words after a match in which the Eastern Province Kings lost 37-21 but did not disgrace themselves at Ellis Park on Saturday.

These words, coming from a man whose team has a full house of points after five Currie Cup rounds, are nothing to be sneered at.

Salary payment problems have dogged the union for months – former coach Carlos Spencer quit because of them – and relations between the players and management were frosty once more leading into the fifth round.

Kings players are having the hardest Currie Cup season imaginable. Their heads wrestle with the pillow on nights before payday – the kind of stress that is as much a pain in the neck as a hit from the opponents’ tighthead. Which is more frightening: the threat of bills unpaid and children unfed or that of the physical pain from a collision on a rugby field? Thanks to their administrators, Kings players have to deal with both.

There was a threat of a player strike. There was a training ground stay-away after the union defaulted on wage payments – again. There were fears that they were in for another pasting, similar to the 51-14 defeat suffered at the hands of the Lions at home in round one.

Nothing of the sort materialised and after a faulty start – conceding three tries in the opening 13 minutes – the Kings ran the Currie Cup log leaders close with some stubborn mauling.

They might have come even closer had referee Stuart Berry not stopped one of their rampant lineout drives for a debatable infraction. Eighthman Paul Schoeman eventually profited from two tries at the back of their rolling maul. Their other try was by Siyanda Grey.

“I expected the passion and the fire, but not the cohesion they had,” Ackermann said. “They jelled quite well, they played a good brand and they tried quite hard.”