Kings give establishment middle finger after Super Rugby drop
A day after their Super Rugby execution, the Southern Kings came to Pretoria and gave SA Rugby the middle finger by ransacking whatever remained of the rancid Loftus Versfeld fortress with a well deserved sixth win of the season.
Having led 22-3 in the first half, it should have been a comfortable win but Lionel Cronje ’s 21 points, including a last-minute penalty, consigned the Bulls to a 10th defeat. The Kings should have made more of their one-man advantage when Jason Jenkins was yellow-carded in the 23rd minute for a late and dangerous tackle on Cronje.
While the offence was similar to the one All Blacks centre Sonny-Bill Williams was sent off for in the second British and Irish Lions test in Wellington, Argentinian match official Federico Anselmi was lenient. He dished out another one to Wandile Mjekevu five minutes later for a similar offence but the Kings scored two tries through Cronje (26th minute) and Malcolm Jaer (34th).
Jenkins ’s brain fade meant the Bulls were denied a beautiful Travis Ismaiel try that contained sleight-of-hand offloads foreign to the Bulls.
With Makazole Mapimpi having scored the first try in the 12th minute after burning Ismaiel and Warrick Gelant for pace on the left-hand side, the Bulls were taken to the cleaners in the first half. They dominated possession but the territory stats belonged to the Kings...
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