Ospreys embarrass hapless Kings ... again
PRO14 REPORT: Dan Evans helped himself to a hat-trick as the Ospreys kept their Pro14 play-off hopes alive with a 43-7 win over the outclassed Southern Kings team in Port Elizabeth on Friday.
The fullback crossed twice in the first half, before completing the hat-trick in the second as the Ospreys overwhelmed their hosts.
Cory Allen, Hanno Dirksen and Bradley Davies also crossed in the first half, as the Ospreys raced into a 33-0 lead, and despite a deserved score for Michael Willemse in the second half, the Kings never threatened the comeback.
The win pushes the Ospreys up to fourth in Conference B ahead of Saturday’s clash between Connacht and Cardiff Blues.
The first try came on 12 minutes as Evans sold a huge dummy in midfield before slicing through and over. Luke Price converted to make it 7-0.
He was in again soon after, with Bradley Davies creating it with a beautiful offload that put Keelan Giles away. He then rounded the outside defence before feeding Evans for the score.
In a flash, they had a third, the pick of the tries as Allen finished after a length-of-the-field attack that started with Giles, who fed Aled Davies and then finally Allen.
The Ospreys were making ground at will, with Adam Beard now making the difference as he perfectly delayed a pass to put Dirksen over.
After his earlier contribution to the second Evans try, Bradley Davies then turned scorer as he was the man to emerge from a dominant maul. Price knocked over four conversions to make it 33-0 at the break.
The Kings improved after the break, with replacement Masixole Banda particularly impressive.
They almost had a first try through Stefan Ungerer, but it was brought back for a forward pass.
Their cause was not helped when Stephan Greeff was sin-binned for taking the man out in the air, and with the extra man Evans went in for number three. It came from a beautiful pass from Sam Davies, fooling the defence with his eyes before putting Evans through.
The Kings did respond however, Willemse dotting down from a maul after some extended time in Ospreys territory.
But it was the Ospreys who had the final say with a beautiful try from Bradley Davies, put in by a stunning wide pass from Beard to seal the win.
The scorers:
For the Southern Kings:
Try: Willemse
Con: Banda
For the Ospreys:
Tries: Evans 3, Allen, Dirksen, Davies 2
Cons: Price 4
Yellow card: Stephan Greeff (Southern Kings, 52)
Teams:
Southern Kings: 15 Ulrich Beyers, 14 Harlon Klaasen, 13 Sibusiso Sithole, 12 Berton Klaasen, 11 Bjorn Basson, 10 Bader Pretorius, 9 Stefan Ungerer, 8 Ruaan Lerm, 7 Andries van Schalkwyk, 6 Andisa Ntsila, 5 Jacobus Astle (captain), 4 Stephan Greeff, 3 De-Jay Terblanche, 2 Michael Willemse, 1 Alulutho Tshakweni.
Replacements: 16 Alandre van Rooyen, 17 Schalk Ferreira, 18 Pieter Scholtz, 19 Schalk Oelofse, 20 Stephan De Wit, 21 Rudi van Rooyen, 22 Masixole Banda, 23 Meli Rokoua.
Ospreys: 15 Dan Evans, 14 Hanno Dirksen, 13 Cory Allen, 12 Owen Watkin, 11 Keelan Giles, 10 Luke Price, 9 Aled Davies, 8 James King, 7 Justin Tipuric (captain), 6 Olly Cracknell, 5 Bradley Davies, 4 Adam Beard, 3 Ma’afu Fia, 2 Scott Baldwin, 1 Nicky Smith.
Replacements: 16 Sam Parry, 17 Gareth Thomas, 18 Tom Botha, 19 Dan Lydiate, 20 Sam Cross, 21 Matthew Aubrey, 22 Sam Davies, 23 Luke Morgan.
Referee: Andrew Brace (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Frank Murphy (Ireland), Ruhan Meiring (South Africa)
TMO: Shaun Veldsman (South Africa)
Source: @PRO14Official
