Nutshell: Two clever kicks foil off-colour Kings

The Kings played with no ball and missed opportunities as they slumped to a 10-19 defeat at the hands of the Brumbies in Port Elizabeth on Saturday.

The home side defended superbly against Australia’s conference leaders but didn’t have the creativity to use their limited chances.

A lack of depth was perhaps also exposed.

Who was the star in this match?

It’s a joint award between two spoilers, the flanks Chris Alcock and Jarrad Butler. They were pests at the breakdowns and tackled efficiently when they needed to.

Key themes and events

• There’s a very simple reason why the Kings never really made headway in this game: they simply had no ball. By the final whistle, they only enjoyed 35% possession and rarely made good use of it by throwing poor passes and being hammered at the breakdown.
• It was rather ironic that the Kings conceded two tries in the last quarter as they actually defended well against a Brumbies side that – like last week against the Lions – made all the play but didn’t necessarily translate it into points. It was telling that it took two kicks forward to break down their resistance.
• Coach Deon Davids took a calculated risk in the final quarter when he replaced his influential halfback pairing of Lionel Cronje and Louis Screuder. Now, Davids needs to trust his depth but it didn’t pay off in this instance. Pieter-Steyn de Wet, Cronje’s replacement, made two vital errors shortly after coming on. First, he floated a poor pass that was intercepted and led to Brumbies wing Aidan Toua’s try and then knocked-on a kick.

Point scorers

Brumbies – Tries: Josh Mann-Rea, Aidan Toua, Tom Banks. Conversions: Wharenui Hawera (2).

Kings – Try: Penalty try. Conversion: Lionel Cronje. Penalty: Cronje.

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