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Kings 'win' in Canberra

The Southern Kings caused the upset of the season when they held the table-topping Brumbies to a 28-all draw in Canberra on Friday.

What a shock! No.1 played No.14, and No.14 won.

The score was 28-all, but the Kings took three points from the match, the Brumbies two.

The Kings scored four tries to two and got a bonus point for tries, and they did it with 37 percent possession. They deserve praise that reaches the heavens.

During the week the Kings said they would tackle the Brumbies and tackle them they did. They came up quickly, eager and determined.

This was in contrast to when the Brumbies were under the cosh in injury time, as three times the Kings tapped penalties and charged; the Brumbies waited nervously on their line and the Kings scored the try that drew the match and won them a bonus point.

Of course they won a lot more than a bonus point in this match. They won the respect of SANZAR's world. Expected to be pushovers they were anything but.

A clearly grumpy Jake White, the Brumbies' coach, after the game spoke of  'vital' refereeing decisions, but it was refereeing decisions that kept his side in the game as they scored six penalty goals to none by the Kings whose points all came from tries. Mind you, they did have a penalty kick at goal but George Whitehead missed the easy kick.

Whitehead was at flyhalf with Dimitri Catrakelis on the bench beacuse of a dicey knee and Siviwe Soyzwapi at fullback, flown in on Sunday to replace Hadleigh Parkes. Catrakelis came on during that last hectic Kings' attack and he was the one who kicked the conversion to draw the match as the Canberra crowd booed loudly into the night sky.

In the match Whitehead's kicking was often faulty. On one occasion the Kings shoved the Brumbies off the ball and instead of treasuring this golden piece of possession Whitehead kicked it directly into touch. By contrast there was Jacques Engelbrecht. He caught a long  Brumbies kick in his own half and did not kick it back. Instead he ran straight ahead, plonking Henry Speight on his back and then Nic White and setting up an attacking position for his side. When they kept ball in hand the Kings looked a much, much better side and a more effective one.

The Brumbies started as if they were about to run away with these minnows from Port Elizabeth, Cornell du Preez played White early and Christian Lealiifano goaled. 3-0 after 2 minutes. Nicolas Vergallo, who had an otherwise excellent game, kicked a box kick, so much a part of a scrumhalf's armoury and such a self-defeating one. This time he kicked to Speight on the Brumbies right. They went left in counterattack and then came back right where Ben Mowen broke strongly and sent Speight over in the right corner. 8-0 after 13 minutes.

The Kings were penalised for obstruction and from the line-out the Brumbies advanced in phases till Joe Tomane had an overlap and scored in the left corner. 13-0 after 16 minutes. For the next 64 minutes, the Brumbies did not score a try. On the one occasion when a try looked likely the Kings scored instead.

After the Brumbies' second try, the Kings went on the attack with their excellent loose forwards in the van till prop Schalk Ferreira dived over for a try. 21-7 after 21 minutes.

But a long penalty by White made the score 16-7 after 29 minutes.

Then Dan Palmer was penalised for coming in at the side of a tackle and Whitehead kicked a brilliant penalty for a line-out five metres from the Brumbies line. Quickly the Kings set up a running maul for a try, credited to Wimpy van der Walt who was the man at the back with the ball. 16-14 after 33 minutes. The Kings were not being embarrassed.

The Brumbies attacked, Whitehead was offside and Lealiifano goaled. 19-14 after 36 minutes, which was the half-time score.

The Brumbies attacked through several phases and were going left with the promise of a try when Lealiifano dropped the ball. Sergeal Petersen flykicked it downfield and a race was on for the ball. Tomane got there first but Kings were on hand and the referee played advantage in the Kings' favour. The ball came back to Petersen who strode off on the right. He gave inside to Vergallo who worked a scissors with Du Preez who had an easy run to the posts for the try, 21-19 – to the Kings! After 46 minutes. The Brumbies were not the same confident team for the rest of the match.

Vergallo was penalised at a tackle and Lealiifano goaled. 22-21 to the Brumbies after 51 minutes, but the Kings were getting better till, after their sixth penalty at a tackle, Ferreira was sent to the sin bin. Still the Kings did not yield. True they were twice penalised at scrums after Ferreira went off and twice Lealiifano goaled to make it 28-21  with only a few minutes left.

The Kings mauled from a line-out and then Van der Walt broke off to set up an attack. The Kings were bashing at the line but they were penalised. Kick it out and the Brumbies had won but the assistant drew the  referee's attention to foul play by Ben Alexander who had charged, shoulder first, into Steven Sykes who did not have the ball. The penalty was reversed but time was up. The Kings tapped. The Brumbies' went offside. The Kings tapped again with Bandise Maku again in the van. Maku got close to the line and the Kings went right where Du Preez crashed over for his second try, the bonus-point try. Calmly, though the Brumbies charged prematurely and the crowd, 12 063 in total, booed raucously, Catrakelis goaled and the final whistle went on a famous draw that was a victory.

 

Man of the Match: There were so many heroes in that Kings team. However, we opted for Wimpie van der Walt, a 24-year-old born in Brits and schooled in Nelspruit. His tackle count was enormous. His running with the ball effective. He had a great game.Van der Walt, whose names are Petrus Willem, played for Western Province Under-21 in 2010 and for the Vodacom Cup side in 2011. His contract was not renewed and he played in Italy for a part of 2012, getting a contract at Eastern Province when he came back from Italy. He played for them 17 times. Today he started for the Kings.

The scorers:

For the Brumbies:

Tries: Speight, Tomane

Pens: Lealiifano 5, White

For the Kings:

Tries: Ferreira, Van der Walt, Du Preez 2

Cons: Whitehead 3, Catrakilis

Teams:

Brumbies: 15 Robbie Coleman, 14 Henry Speight, 13 Tevita Kuridrani, 12 Pat McCabe, 11 Joe Tomane, 10 Christian Lealiifano, 9 Nic White, 8 Fotu Auelua, 7 George Smith, 6 Ben Mowen (captain), 5 Etienne Oosthuizen, 4 Peter Kimlin, 3 Dan Palmer, 2 Siliva Siliva, 1 Ben Alexander.

Replacements: 16 Stephen Moore, 17 Scott Sio, 18 Sam Carter, 19 Colby Faingaa, 20 Ian Prior, 21 Andrew Smith, 22 Zack Holmes.

Southern Kings: 15 Siviwe Soyzwapi, 14 Sergeal Petersen, 13 Waylon Murray, 12 Andries Strauss (captain), 11 Ronnie Cooke, 10 George Whitehead, 9 Nicolas Vergallo, 8 Cornell du Preez, 7 Wimpie van der Walt, 6 Devin Oosthuizen, 5 Rynier Bernardo, 4 Steven Sykes, 3 Grant Kemp, 2 Hannes Franklin, 1 Schalk Ferreira.

Replacements: 16 Bandise Maku, 17 Kevin Buys, 18 David Bulbring, 19 Jacques Engelbrecht, 20 Shaun Venter, 21 Marcello Sampson, 22 Demetri Catrakilis.

Referee: Jaco Peyper (South Africa)

Assistant referees: Angus Gardner (Australia), Andrew Lees (Australia)

TMO: George Ayoub (Australia)

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