EP Kings smash Boland in Currie Cup

The EP Kings celebrated their inclusion in Super Rugby with a crushing victory over the Boland Kavaliers at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Friday.

The unbeaten Kings, who after nine months of speculation were voted into next year’s Super tournament, shed the shackles of uncertainty and ran the ball whenever the opportunity presented itself. They scored eight tries to Boland’s three and thereby increased their unbeaten streak to eight games.

They helped themselves to five first-half tries and secured the bonus-point score through flyhalf Wesley Dunlop as early as the 24th minute.

The Kings first got onto the scoreboard in the ninth minute when captain and No 8 Luke Watson crashed over from a maul which rolled all of 20 metres.

Five minutes later, prop Clint Newland scored his team’s second from more driving play by his fellow forwards. Centre Tiger Mangweni collected a pass from Samoan winger Paul Perez to score the third try midway through the first half.

After Dunlop had made it 26-0 with his try which he converted himself, fullback SP Marais intercepted the ball close to his own tryline and ran the length of the field to score under the posts.

Dunlop slotted the easy conversion and kicked another penalty but not before Boland opened their account with try by flank Philip van Zyl.

Watson thereafter got his second try of the match shortly after the restart to rub further salt in the wounds and ensure that the Kings established themselves, if they had not already done so, as odds-on favourites for the title.

Final Score EP Kings (36) 57 Boland Kavaliers (5) 19

Scorers

Kings
Tries: Wimpie van der Walt, Wesley Dunlop, Tiger Mangweni, SP Marais, Luke Watson (2), Cornell du Preez, Clint Newland
Conversions: Dunlop (6), George Whitehead
Penalty: Dunlop.

Kavaliers
Tries: Senan van der Merwe, PJ van Zyl, Nolan Clark
Conversions: Eric Zana, Jacquin Jansen