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Cape Town - The Southern Kings beat a 13-man Jaguares outfit 29-22 in their Super Rugby clash in Port Elizabeth on Friday night.
The home side outscored the Jaguares by four tries to one, despite the visitors' brave and intelligent second-half effort they could not outsmart the Kings, handing them a try-scoring bonus point as well.
The Kings' tries came via prop Schalk Ferreira, a penalty try, Dewald Human and Wandile Mjekevu while the visitors' only try was scored by No 8 Facundo Isa.
The game will however be remembered for New Zealand referee Nick Briant punishing the Argentines for ill-discipline.
The men from Argentina were reduced to 13 men after lock Tomás Lavanini and prop Ramiro Herrera both saw red in the 25th and 37th minute, respectively.
The Kings however struggled to utilise their two-man advantage and it was only in the last 10 minutes, when the Jaguares went down to 12 men when they also lost Tomas Lezana to a yellow card, that the dam wall broke.
The Kings were trailing 22-10 with 10 minutes left but scored three tries when they had three more players on the park.
The Port Elizabeth outfit failed to use the early two-man advantage, which they enjoyed for nearly 50 minutes, to good effect as they missed tackles but more surprisingly kept on kicking the ball back to the visitors.
The first red card, which came moments before wing Emiliano Boffelli dotted down after he collected a cross-kick from his flyhalf only to be reversed when Lavanini saw red. This shifted the momentum in the favour of the home side as they started playing with more confidence albeit not having any points to show for it.
A single Louis Fouche penalty early in the first half were the only points for the Kings, while Argentina flyhalf Nicolas Sánchez responded with two penalties to hand the visitors a slender three point advantage as the players headed down the tunnel with the scores on 6-3.
The visitors, having been reduced to 13 men, made no intention of running at the Kings defensive line, as Sanchez added three more second half penalties that gave the men from Argentina a healthy lead for the majority of the second half.
It wasn't until the Lezana yellow card that handed the Kings their second try, this also meant that the visitors finished the match with just 12 men. Moments later Super Rugby debutant Dewald Human, who came on for Jurgen Visser early in the first half, ran in the home side's third try and the subsequent conversion from Fouche handed the Kings a slender 24-22 as the match headed into the final five minutes.
Speedster Wandile Mjekevu, on loan from the Sharks, added the fourth and bonus-point try to give the Kings their first bonus point victory this season.
Scorers:
Kings
Tries: Schalk Ferreira, Penalty try, Dewald Human, Wandie Mjekevu
Conversions: Louis Fouche (3)
Penalty: Fouche
Jaguares
Try: Facundo Isa
Conversion: Nicolas Sanchez
Penalties: Sanchez (5)
Teams:
Kings
15 Jurgen Visser, 14 Lukhanyo Am, 13 Stefan Watermeyer, 12 Shane Gates, 11 Wandile Mjekevu, 10 Louis Fouche, 9 Ntando Kebe, 8 Aidon Davis, 7 Thembelani Bholi, 6 Stefan Willemse, 5 JC Astle, 4 Steven Sykes (captain), 3 Jacobie Adriaanse, 2 Edgar Marutlulle, 1 Schalk Ferreira
Substitutes: 16 Martin Bezuidenhout, 17 Justin Ackerman, 18 Tom Botha, 19 Schalk Oelofse, 20 Jacques Engelbrecht, 21 Kevin Luiters, 22 Dewald Human, 23 JP du Plessis
Jaguares
15 Joaquín Tuculet, 14 Matías Orlando, 13 Segundo Tuculet, 12 Juan Martín Hernández, 11 Emiliano Boffelli, 10 Nicolás Sánchez, 9 Martín Landajo (captain), 8 Facundo Isa, 7 Juan Manuel Leguizamón, 6 Tomás Lezana, 5 Tomás Lavanini, 4 Guido Petti, 3 Ramiro Herrera, 2 Agustin Creevy, 1 Santiago García Botta
Substitutes: 16 Julián Montoya, 17 Facundo Gigena, 18 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, 19 Matías Alemanno, 20 Javier Ortega Desio, 21 Felipe Ezcurra, 22 Santiago González Iglesias, 23 Ramiro Moyano
