Sharks win tough Kings battle

The Sharks had to work very hard to beat the Southern Kings by 21-12 in front of a full house of 42,000 fans at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth on Saturday evening, as Springbok flyhalf Pat Lambie recorded all of this team’s points for the second successive week.

Lambie was successful with six penalty goals and one dropped goal, while his counterpart from the Kings, Demetri Catrakilis, slotted all four of his attempts at goal.

The six kickable penalties conceded by the Kings probably indicated their biggest problem on the night – discipline. It’s true that both sides were penalised heavily during the match, but it happened more within range for The Sharks and they duly made the score board tick over each time Lambie got the opportunity to aim at goal.

The home team especially struggled at scrum time and conceded a heap of penalties in this facet. Unlike their problematic discipline, the Kings’ defence was superb and held firm for 80 minutes under numerous onslaughts from the runners up from 2012.

But the KwaZulu-Natalians were probably a bit too lateral on attack and although they created a few try-scoring opportunities, they were kept out by brilliant defence by the Kings.

Scorers:

Southern Kings – Penalty goals: Demetri Catrakilis (4).

The Sharks – Penalty goals: Pat Lambie (6). Drop goal: Lambie.