It is an accepted tenet of all sports fans that if their team wins then all is good in the world, no blame is apportioned and no criticism passed. On the other hand, when your team loses then your team and individual players can be expected to experience heaps of criticism, nit picking of performances, ‘benefit of hindsight’ questioning of substitutions and dodgy decisions along with a whole myriad of lamentable pronunciations on the players, coaches and management’s upbringing.
Of course if the referee or officials are found guilty, at the very least, of being human and making mistakes then a scapegoat has been found, sniffed out and found wanting.
Combine the perception of poor performance by officials and the inexplicable terror of seeing your team lose and the visions of guys in white coats with pointy hats carrying firebrands, rope and fiery crosses in hot pursuit of a man wearing green and gold with a whistle slung around his neck start to become an uncomfortable vision.
Kudos to Southern Kings coach, Alan Solomons who, at the post match press conference, managed to stay the potential white coat wearing antagonists by saying; “We were the architects of our own destruction in the first 15 minutes”, “We have no gripe with the ref” and “We disappointed ourselves.” Echoing Solomons sentiments, captain Rory Duncan confirmed the disappointing performance against the Cheetahs by saying; “We didn’t pitch up in the right frame of mind”.
But, as has been said before, it doesn’t matter what excuses one can glibly trot out to ‘justify’ a loss, at the end of the day the record books will still say:
Cheetahs: 45, Southern Kings: 17
A huge loss when one looks at the Southern Kings sterling performance against the Blue Bulls last week.
The game started off relatively well for the 13 000 odd fans with a bit of eye candy for the girls with the addition of four buff warrior dancers joining the posse of female Southern Kings dancers who leaped about energetically thrusting spears and whatnot and generally shaking what flappy bits they possessed. Contributing to the great fortune was the blessed rain.
It should have bloody snowed, though.
The rumblings against the ref started in the first ten minutes which saw three penalties awarded against the Southern Kings and 14 points on the board against from; a try in the 4th minute (Strauss), 2 conversions (Olivier) and a try in the 10th minute (Oosthuizen).
It was only in the 13th minute that the Southern Kings managed to get onto the point standings with a Dumond penalty.
Hope for a resurgence occurred when SP Marais barrelled over for a try in the 20th minute neatly converted by Monty Dumond.
And then, disaster struck when the Kings flanker Mpho Mbiyoza was red carded after an altercation with K. Floors resulting in the Southern Kings having to play the rest of the match with 14 men. The boos against the ref, Pro Legoete, and the Cheetahs clown who was supposedly ‘injured’, but jumped up hale and hearty as Mpho’s dejected frame left the field, were loud. (See the lack of urgency from officials during the ensuing fracas in the image gallery below).
But, as they say; “What goes around come around” as the next try the Cheetahs scored was after an ‘unseen’ knock on. Revenge, they say, is a dish best served cold!
The Cheetahs didn’t play the exact game that many thought they would (wide and high) but mixed it up with continuous thrusts down the centre of play, high short ball and physicality – in short the kind of game that has frustrated many a local Grey pupil travelling to Bloemfontein to play against the ‘other Grey’.
The scoring continued and at half time things were looking decidedly bleak as the Cheetahs moved into a comfortable 38 – 10 lead.
With 14 men coming out for the second half many a Kings fan was looking to swop allegiance.
The game Southern Kings held the Cheetahs back for 11 minutes before Cheetahs scrumhalf, Pretorius crashed over for his try, a conversion by Olivier and the Cheetahs moved on to 45 points.
Credit to the Kings, though as they retreated into the boma and held the Cheetahs off right up until the death when the Kings not so secret weapon, Norman ‘blikksem maar jy is vinnig’ Nelson screamed away from everyone on the halfway line and sailed over the try-line to redeem the Kings.
Final Score: Cheetahs – 45, Southern Kings – 17
Cheetahs Scorers:
- Tries – Andries Strauss, WP Nel, Ryno Barnes, Juan Smith, Naas Olivier, Philip Burger, Sarel Pretorius
- Conversions – Naas Oliver (5)
Southern Kings Scorers:
- Tries – Norman Nelson, SP Marais
- Conversions – Monty Dumond (2)
- Penalties – Monty Dumond
One last piece of advice for the referee, Pro Legoete; “Please change your first name, Pro, as the word associations with another entirely disreputable profession did flow somewhat last night.”
The next game is against the Lions on 11 February at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.
Alan Straton
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It was a very disappointing game by the Kings, but it didn’t help that the ref blew them out the game. It looked like he was trying to impress the Cheetah management or something. The best part is that Mbiyoza got a red card, but a Cheetah player only got a yellow for exactly the same thing in the second half. He was pathetic to say the least. But excuses apart, I think the Cheetahs would have beaten the Kings even if the ref was up to scratch. Like Duncan said, EP didn’t pitch for the game. I hope they will pick up the pieces against the Lions on Friday. I will sadly miss the game cause I will be in Jozi. Hope they show it on the telly though.