Some stats from the Kings and Chiefs game.

With all the drama surrounding the Southern Kings and foreign players, let take a minute and appreciate their good performance against the Chiefs on Friday evening.

The Southern Kings played the defending champions this last Friday evening at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth. The Kings have had a good start to the 2013 Super Rugby Competition with an opening win against the Force and a narrow lose to the 2012 runners up the Sharks.

Amongst the forwards Schalk Ferreira had a good 80 minutes on the park. He only missed 1 out of 10 (91%) tackles, stuck his head in 8 ruck and mauls and managed 26 meters with 8 runs. Bandise Maku was solid on defense not missing 1 of his 5 tackles, gained 22 meters for his team and won 3 turnovers. Cornell du Preez had another solid outing, hitting those rucks 6 times, gaining 62 meters and also off loaded 3 times. Wimpie van der Walt made 12 tackles with only Ben Afeaki and Tanerau Latimer from the Chiefs making 13 each but van der Walt was the most effective with 100%. Van der Walt forced 1 turnover and also hit 8 ruck and mauls.

Amongst the backs it was Demetri Catrakilis who gained the most kicking meters, gaining 515 meters and 27 running meters. In his 3 runs he created on 1 line break. Catrakilis also missed 1 out of his 7 tackles. Without Andries Strauss on his inside Ronnie Cooke had to be the senior partner and show Hadleigh Parks how its done. He did how ever miss 2 from 12 tackles but gained 30 meters from his 6 runs helped out at 8 rucks and forced 2 turnovers. Sergeal Petersen made the most of his 3 runs as he gained 110 meters with 1 one of those ending under the post on halftime.

Daniel Adongo made the most of his 26 minutes when he came on in the second half, being spot on with all his tackles, contributed 13 meters with ball in hand and hitting 4 ruck and mauls.

Comparing the Southern Kings to the defending champions they really took the game to the Chiefs and were unlucky not to have scored a losing bonus point to be within 7 points. Kings created 2 from 3 line breaks. They did the basics right by winning all their scrums, won 12 from 13 line outs and also stealing one from the Chiefs. Ran 86 times compared to Chiefs 89 but Chiefs gained 707 meters to Kings 589. The Kings kicked 4 times more then the Chiefs and made 118 (77%) tackles to Chiefs 106 (85%).

The Kings who are known for their solid defense in the last 2 games had a few numbers short out wide and allowed the Chiefs to score a few in the corners also showed some good attacking play in the last 15 or so minutes and kept the ball as their confidence grew towards the end of the game.

So far the Kings have shown that they can compete against the seasoned teams in this competition and it will be difficult to get points in Port Elizabeth. Having a Kings Army of 30 000+ strong and growing, dressed in Kings jerseys and armed with Kings flags lets hope their confidence will grow as a team when they travel to the unknown and maybe collect a bonus point or two before returning home.