Lions beat Southern Kings in Super15 warm up

The Lions pulled off another pre-Super rugby season victory when they beat the Southern Kings by 24 points to 30 in Port Elizabeth.

The Southern Kings are a potential future Super rugby team coached by Alan Solomons and have been promised inclusion in Super rugby from 2013.

Over the course of the warm up season the Southern Kings lost to the Lions in this match, were well beaten by the Cheetahs 45-17 and in their first match this year the beat the reigning Super Rugby champions the Bulls 23-7.

The Lions went into the match with an understrength team and Southern Kings were only playing in their fourth ever match so both sides should be pleased with the result.

Inexperience and lack of depth proved to be the downfall of the Southern Kings
against a second-string Lions side at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port
Elizabeth on Friday.

Despite showing signs of a comeback in the early stages of the second half,
it was not enough for the Kings to emulate their shock win over the Blue Bulls
a fortnight ago.

Simple mistakes, akin to the ones made in last week’s defeat to the Cheetahs,
came back to bite Alan Solomons’ troops, as the Lions’ clinical display took
advantage of the errors both in open play and set-pieces.

The Lions showed made their mark early when the home side’s defence was caught
napping – allowing three soft tries from Lions centre Joubert Engelbrecht and
winger Tonderai Chavanga who scored within two minutes of each other, with centre
Jannie Boshoff scoring the third and final try of the first half.

The Kings made a slow comeback with a Jaco van Schalkwyk penalty, and looked
more confident in the last 15 minutes – pushing forward and occupying the opposition
territory more often.

They were rewarded with eight minutes before the half-time whistle when loosehead
prop Ronnie Uys barged over as the Lions led 22-10 at the break.

Kings’ coach Alan Solomons must have hit a nerve as his troops came back firing
in the second stanza.

They pushed forward and kept the visitors under pressure and were rewarded
with a blistering try by massive winger Paul Perez. He was fed by scrumhalf
Jacques Coetzee after a scrum five metres from the Lions tryline.

The Samoan winger barged through the Lions defence to score close to the goalposts.
Second half substitute flyhalf Monty Dumond converted.

Shortly after coming onto the field, Boetie Brits put his name on the scorers
list, and Dumond scored an almost impossible conversion from the corner to put
the Kings in the lead for the first and only time in the match (24-22).

Perez gave his side a temporary get-out-of-jail card a few moments later when
he stopped towering Lions’ lock David Bulbring on the Kings’ line, only to sustain
an ankle injury in the process which ruled him out for the remainder of the
game.

With 13 minutes to go, former Blitzbokke captain Jonathan Mokuena managed to
squeeze his way through the Kings defence following a scrum on their five metre
line, to give the Lions the lead.

Cronje sealed the game for the Lions when he converted a penalty a minute before
the final whistle, taking the score to 30-24.

The gallant performance by the Kings in the late stages may have left them
on the losing side but at least they went down with a fight.

Final Score Southern Kings 24 (10) Lions (22) 30

Scorers

Kings
Tries: Ronnie Uys, Paul Perez, Boetie Brits.
Conversions: Jaco van Schalkwyk, Monty Dumond (2)
Penalties: Van Schalkwyk.

Lions
Tries: Joubert Engelbrecht, Tonderai Chavanga, Jannie Boshoff, Jonathan Mokuena.
Conversions: Hein Cronje (2).
Penalty: JP Joubert, Cronje.

Teams