Cape Town - It was a tough day at the office for the Kings on Saturday as they fell to a 39-26 loss to Argentina's Jaguares in Port Elizabeth on Saturday.
It was a disappointing result for the hosts, who had won the fixture in 2016.
It looked like history might repeat itself as the Kings ran out to a 9-3 lead after 10 minutes, but the momentum soon shifted and the Jaguares were bossing it before long.
For Kings coach Deon Davids, there were numerous departments that needed work.
"We started well and we did some good things. But we just couldn’t find that rhythm and intensity that we would have liked," he said after the match.
"You can’t play rugby without the ball and our set piece – our scrum and lineout – was not as good as it could have been and we’ll have to work on that.
"We just played against ourselves."
Davids was particularly disappointed with the start of the second half, which saw the Kings leak two soft tries inside the opening 15 minutes.
"It was not structured tries that they scored, they actually scored tries through our mistakes and that is something that we need to improve," he said.
"We need to ensure that we get quality ball from our set pieces. We need to make sure that whenever we kick a ball we apply good pressure. We need to ensure that we play more rugby in the opponent’s half.
"I can’t fault the commitment. You have to have continuity because that brings confidence and combinations. At some point we struggled with that continuity … but as the competition goes on, if we don’t have any injuries, I think we will build a lot of positives."
The Kings are next in action on Saturday when they take on the Sunwolves away.