Cheetahs tame tenacious Kings

The Cheetahs held a slender 7-6 lead at half-time before scoring two second half tries, including a seven pointer after the final hooter, to end their pre-season campaign unbeaten – after beating the Bulls 28-10 in Zimbabwe six days ago.

The Kings took the lead in the eighth minute when Elgar Watts slotted a 45 metre penalty after the Cheetahs failed to release the tackled player at the breakdown. The Cheetahs looked to hit back from the restart and pinned the home side inside their 22.

All the pressure came to nothing as the Kings were able to scramble quickly enough to clear the danger, thanks to a Cheetahs infringement inside the Kings' five metre line. It was then the Kings' turn to have a go at the Cheetahs' defence but a knock-on on the visitors' 22 stopped them in their tracks.

The Cheetahs looked sure of getting the first try of the match but a Malcolm Jaer tackle brought his opponent down five metres short of the line. There was no stopping the Cheetahs from that point though as Prinsloo got himself over the line to get the visitors on the board. Sias Ebersohn made no mistake with the conversion to hand the Cheetahs a 7-3 lead after 24 minutes.

It was one-way traffic from that point as the Cheetahs remained on the front foot and placed the Kings' defence under all sorts of pressure. With 10 minutes remaining in the match, the Kings finally got their hands on the ball and took the game to the Cheetahs.

Continuous infringements by the visitors allowed the home side set up a line-out five metres from their try line. The Cheetahs showed plenty of determination to steal the throw-in but failed to clear their lines and were forced to dot the ball down and hand the Kings a scrum.

The Kings failed to cross the try line, thanks to the Cheetahs being caught in an offside position, and opted to have the shot at goal. Watts slotted his second kick of the match to reduce the deficit to a solitary point at the break.

The home side got the second half off to the ideal start as Shane Gates made his way over the line to grab their only try of the match and hand the Kings an 11-7 lead after 45 minutes. The Cheetahs could have responded with a line-out six metres from the Kings' try line but failed to emerge with any points as the home side stood firm in defence.

The momentum of the match continued to change hands before Petersen grabbed the Cheetahs' second try of the match when he sliced through the Kings' defence. Fred Zeilinga added the extras to hand the visitors a 14-11 lead after 65 minutes.

The Kings pressed hard in the closing stages of the match and went all out for the winning try, attempting to run the ball from inside their 22. he Cheetahs were able to turn the ball over on the 5m line and captain Francois Venter crossed the whitewash, with Ebersohn converting.

Scorers:

For the Southern Kings:

Try: Gates

Pens: Watts 2

For the Cheetahs:

Tries: Prinsloo, Petersen, Venter

Cons: Ebersohn 2, Zeilinga

Teams:

Southern Kings: 15 Jurgen Visser, 14 Luzuko Vulundlu, 13 Stefan Watermeyer, 12 Shane Gates, 11 Malcolm Jaer, 10 Elgar Watts, 9 Ntando Kebe, 8 Jacques Engelbrecht, 7 Thembelani Bholi, 6 Chris Cloete, 5 JC Astle, 4 Steven Sykes (captain), 3 Tom Botha, 2 Martin Bezuidenhout, 1 Schalk Ferreira.

Replacements – from: Sithembiso Sithole, Martin Ferreira, Vukile Sofisa, Cornell Hess, CJ Velleman, Stephan Willemse, Sipato Pokomela, Leighton Eksteen, Theuns Kotze, JP du Plessis, Siyanda Grey.

Cheetahs: 15 Sergeal Petersen, 14 Maphutha Dolo, 13 Francois Venter (captain), 12 William Small-Smith, 11 Raymond Rhule, 10 Sias Ebersohn, 9 Shaun Venter, 8 Niell Jordaan, 7 Uzair Cassiem, 6 Johannes Prinsloo, 5 Lodewyk de Jager, 4 Carl Wegner, 3 Nicolaas van Dyk, 2 Torsten van Jaarsveld, 1 Charles Marais.

Replacements – from: Jacques du Toit, Danie Mienie, Luan de Bruin, Reniel Hugo, Hilton Lobberts, Paul Schoeman, Henco Venter, Tian Meyer, Fred Zeilinga, Michael van der Spuy, Clayton Blommetjies.

Referee: Craig Joubert