Southern Kings praise match winner Catrakilis

Southern Kings Director of Rugby Alan Solomons and coach Matt Sexton and have praised their team including fly half Demetri Catrakilis who’s late drop goal won them their second Super Rugby match.

The Kings made a flying start to their final match on tour in Melbourne with Ronnie Cooke scoring the first try in the 8th minute and then in the 15th minute Shaun Venter scored their second try.

The Kings looked set to follow up last week’s draw against the Brumbies in Canberra with an away win but they relaxed and allowed the Rebels to come back at them.

The Rebels managed to level the scores 17-all at half time and then after Mitch Inman scored his first ever Super Rugby try the home side looked like they would take the honours.

Catrakilis and his boot kept the Kings in the game and then six minutes from time the Rebels lost Jordy Reid to the sin-bin.

The Kings responded immediately by using the numbers advantage and sent Wimpie van der Walt over for their third try.

The conversion levelled the scores and then in extra time Catrakilis sent the match winning drop goal over.

Head coach Matt Sexton said he felt that Kings did not play to their full potential and added that they still give away too many penalties.

“The problem is that we perhaps had too much of a good start and the guys took their foot off the gas and relaxed a little, which allowed the momentum to sway in the Rebels favour,” he said.

“We have got to learn to keep the pressure on, but this is also a learning curve for us and this was another lesson learnt,” he said.

“Of course we’re exceptionally happy with the four log points, and the overall result, but we battled in the middle of the game,” said head coach Matt Sexton.

Director or Rugby Alan Solomons agreed with Sexton and said that the players were much better in the second half.

“We lost momentum and eased off after the first ten minutes or so, and our exiting our own half was poor, we gave away too many penalties which meant we made work for ourselves,” he said.

Solomons said that even though he felt they had not played very well the result showed their determination and character.

“A win when you’re not playing well, that says a lot about the team,” he said.

Solomons added that he was very happy with the match winning drop goal from Catrakilis.

“We knew Demetri could do it, he’s done it before at Currie cup and VC level, and he has a wonderful temperament under pressure,” he told MyPE.

“Before this it was already a good tour, but the win has turned this into a fantastic tour,” he said.

The Kings return to South Africa now where they will host former champions the Bulls on Saturday in Port Elizabeth.