Griffons, Kings stay unbeaten

THE Eastern Province Kings made it three wins in a row when they convincingly beat the Falcons 37-20 in a Currie Cup First Division clash at an icy Barnard Stadium in Kempton Park on Saturday.

It has been an ideal start to the campaign for the Kings, who are chasing promotion to the Premier Division next year.

They trail log-leaders and the other unbeaten team in the competition, the Griffons, by one point.

And the Kings will be looking to make it four out of four when they play whipping boys and neighbours Border at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Friday evening.

EP had clinched the match by half time as they led 24-8 after tries from centre Michael Killian, prop Clint Newland and former Springbok wing Jongi Nokwe.

The Falcons’ hopes were not helped when they lost tighthead prop Nico Engelbrecht early in the game followed by his replacement, Hannes Ludik, being sin-binned shortly thereafter.

Falcons No 8 Reg Muller pulled a try back for the home side before the break, but the Kings responded after half time with a try by replacement prop Lizo Gqoboka that made it 31-8.

The Falcons fought back with tries to wing JW Bell and replacement loose forward Uzair Cassiem to cut the deficit to 11 points, but the Kings kept a calm head to close out the game with two penalties from the boot of replacement flyhalf Wesley Dunlop.

Dunlop replaced George Whitehead who once again had a solid day with the boot, kicking four conversions and a penalty.

Point-scorers:

Falcons – Tries: JW Bell, Reg Muller, Uzair Cassiem. Conversion: Karlo Aspeling. Penalty: Aspeling.

Kings – Tries: Michael Killian, Lizo Gqoboka, Jongi Nokwe, Clint Newland. Conversions: George Whitehead (4). Penalties: Whitehead, Wesley Dunlop (2).

Meanwhile, the Griffons remained the surprise early frontrunners on the log when they managed another five- point haul by beating Border Bulldogs 29-24 in Welkom on Friday.

The defending champions, Boland Cavaliers, crashed to their third consecutive defeat, going down 23-21 to the Leopards in Malmesbury.

Friday’s other match saw the SWD Eagles move into third position on the log with a closely fought 22-16 win over the Pumas in George.

Former WP and Stormers flyhalf Kurt Coleman was the hero for the Eagles with a haul of 14 points.

Point-scorers:

Eagles – Try: Johan Herbst. Conversion: Kurt Coleman. Penalties: Coleman (4), Theuns Kotze.

Pumas – Tries: RW Kember, Renaldo Bothma. Penalties: JC Roos (2). Additional reporting by Sapa