Free State avoid the drop
Oct 26,2012
Free State Cheetahs retained their Currie Cup Premier Division status with a 16-6 win against the EP Kings in Port Elizabeth.
The visitors all but secured their place in their first play-off match in Bloemfontein, and only needed a single bonus point in the second encounter.
The Kings, however, produced a much better performance and were able to compete in the second fixture.
The home side led 6-0 for most of the game and only a man short on defence created the overlap for the visitors to score the only try of the game.
The Kings opened the scoring in the fourth minute through a George Whitehead penalty. Cheetahs fly-half Sias Ebersohn missed two penalties in the first 30 minutes, putting the visitors under even more pressure.
The turning point, it seemed, came in the 32nd minute when Kings scrum-half Noel Oelschig was red carded for a punch.
The Cheetahs looked more settled in the second half and put together some probing attacks. The visitors scored their first points on the hour mark, to reduce the deficit to three points through a penalty.
It proved to be the catalyst for Naka Drotske's troops, as Ebersohn scored in the corner in the 62nd minute after the Kings ran out of steam with one man short on the defence.
Scheepers converted and later slotted two penalties to seal the deal for his team.
The scorers:
For EP Kings:
Pens: Whitehead 2
For FS Cheetahs:
Try: S Ebersohn
Con: Scheepers
Pens: Scheepers
EP Kings: 15 Michael Killian, 14 Norman Nelson, 13 Paul Perez, 12 Tiger Mangweni, 11 Siviwe Soyizwapi, 10 George Whitehead, 9 Falie Oelschig, 8 Devin Oosthuizen, 7 Wimpie van der Walt, 6 Conraad Britz, 5 Rynier Bernardo, 4 Darron Nell (captain), 3 Andre Schlechter, 2 Hannes Franklin, 1 Schalk Ferreira.
Replacements: 16 Frank Herne, 17 Lizo Gqoboka, 18 David Bullbring, 19 Mpho Mbiyozo, 20 Scott Mathie, 21 Wesley Dunlop, 22 Scott van Breda.
Free State Cheetahs: 15 Hennie Daniller, 14 Rayno Benjamin, 13 Robert Ebersohn, 12 Philip Snyman, 11 Raymond Rhule, 10 Sias Ebersohn, 9 Sarel Pretorius, 8 Philip van der Walt, 7 Davon Raubenheimer, 6 Hendro Scholtz, 5 Izak van der Westhuizen, 4 Francois Uys, 3 Ross Geldenhuys, 2 Adriaan Strauss (c), 1 Marcel van der Merwe.
Replacements: 16 Hercu Liebenberg, 17 Schalk van der Merwe, 18 Carl Wegner, 19 Hendrik Venter, 20 Tewis de Bruyn, 21 Barry Geel, 22 Nico Scheepers.
Comments (4)
Oct 27, 2012 at 01:21:45
SA Rugby has a responsibility to make sure that the Kings are well equipped enough. Here in NZ, the NZRU makes sure that the country's top 100 player (or so) have a S15 contract somewhere in the NZ. This ensures that the best players are playing at top level week in and week out and then even new teams can compete. Over time then this also allows local talent to develop and come through the ranks.
Also, it would be sensible for Currie Cup to expand again in some format to allow the Kings CC team to compete next year at the higher level.
Come on SA Rugby. Some level of interference is required to ensure SA teams don't look idiotic in the S15!
Oct 27, 2012 at 07:00:36
Now that it's the Kings, SA rugby must make a plan?????? Joke, right! They should not have walked into the S15 the way they did. They should've had to play 2 Relegation matches against the Lions. Then I would've accepted them in the S15. The way they got in, I will NOT support them against Any team.
Oct 26, 2012 at 21:40:59
Maybe Im just not as clued up as I thought I was but I did not know who the hell allot of those Cheetahs were especially those that came of the bench. The Kings could not even beat a Freestate C side not to mention a full strength CC side, makes you wonder what the kings are going to do in S15.