pro 14 sa matches
PRO 14
KING 30-31 CHEETAS
DEADLY DE WEE
The Kings looked up for this one right from the off in front
of the home support and opened the scoring on just three minutes as Pretorius
knocked over a penalty.
Minutes later and Pretorius was at it again but this time
with a try, the fly-half diving over before easily converting in front of the
posts.
The hosts continued to dominate and increased their lead to
13-0 with another penalty just before the half-hour, but crucially missed
another and allowed the Cheetahs to get on the board as lock Sintu Manjezi
powered over.
The lead was 13-5 at the break and soon became 20-5 on the
restart as Stefan Ungerer intercepted from Tian Schoeman and sprinted into the
corner.
This finally woke the Cheetahs up and they forced their way
back upfield for Manjezi to dive over once more, the lead now cut to 20-12 and
the influential Ruan Pienaar on for the visitors.
The pendulum, however, swung back the other way as Ungerer
sent over a speculative chip-kick towards the posts and JT Jackson capitalised
on defensive indecisiveness to collect and dive over.
At 27-12 down and heading towards the final quarter the
Cheetahs knew a response had to come, and find it they did as replacement Wilmar
Arnoldi peeled off a drive to touch down from close range.
But Robbi Kempson’s men continued to thwart the Cheetahs at
every opportunity, Bobby de Wee forcing a knock-on with a diving tackle on 66
minutes and then Pretorius slotting a penalty on 71.
De Wee, off the bench, then made a crucial lineout steal on
his five-metre line but the sting was still to come, Smith first with an
outside break to strike on 75 minutes and then miraculously collecting a
cross-field kick with two attempts deep into the red.
MY
OPINION
This was a very important win
for the Cheetos in their race for a playoff push. I do think that the home
match against the same o[opponents will be crucial in the group for their
chances at a quarter final but you do wonder what will happen for Champions cup
next season
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