"When you are on your knees, and I think the Kings would know, it is a difficult thing to stand up. But once you are on your feet you can really work hard. That is what we are going to aim for,” Smith said.
“I have coached in South Africa for a long time and I am a South African myself so I will never turn my back on a South African team. We knew it would be tough here in Port Elizabeth.
“There some things which were good about us in the first half, but the Kings were resilient and they came back.
“The Kings are a proud team and, coming from the same position, and don’t read too much into the win and loss columns.
“You will see this team grow given their commitment. Despite a lot of losses they fight and want to win to end and never give up. I think Kings head coach Deon Davids and his staff can be proud of that.”
Smith said his tean had been their own worst enemies in a tight game. “We were good in the first 10 minutes and we kept the pressure on. But we were our own enemies because of our errors.
“The spirit the Kings played with was exceptional and it was typical South African derby rugby.
"We expected that. In the first half we should have made better use of our opportunities. All credit to the Kings for fighting back specially in the set piece where we said we wanted to dominate them.
“The Kings then scored a penalty try which was against our plans. The Kings spirit and fight was second to none.”
“We are at a stage in the competition where we needed to get better and we needed this win to boost morale.
“A lot of times we made things hard for ourselves and we need to look after the ball better.
“We had about nine starts in the Kings' 22 which we did not covert into tries and that is not good enough. That needs to change.”
On Saturday the Kings host Edinburgh at the Madibaz Stadium while the Cheetahs will be in action against Zebre in Bloemfontein.
After his team’s defeat against the Cheetahs, Kings head coach Deon Davids said hard work would be done on the training pitch in preparation for the Edinburgh’s visit.
“We were dominated in the scrums and could not get our lineout going in the first half. That upset our rhythm,” Davids said.
Don't write off the Kings
Cheetahs coach praises tenacity of Bay side
Image: Gallo Images
Despite a long list of losses, the struggling Isuzu Southern Kings should not be written off, Cheetahs head coach Franco Smith said.
Smith paid tribute to the resilience of the Kings after his team escaped with a last-gasp 24-17 win in Port Elizabeth on Friday.
It took a try in the final play after the hooter for the Cheetahs to secure a dramatic Guinness PRO14 win at the Madibaz Stadium.
Like the Kings, the Cheetahs have also found life tough in the European league this season and he drew some parallels between the sides.
The Kings have only a solitary win under their belt after 12 outings while the Cheetahs have four wins after the same number of games.
"When you are on your knees, and I think the Kings would know, it is a difficult thing to stand up. But once you are on your feet you can really work hard. That is what we are going to aim for,” Smith said.
“I have coached in South Africa for a long time and I am a South African myself so I will never turn my back on a South African team. We knew it would be tough here in Port Elizabeth.
“There some things which were good about us in the first half, but the Kings were resilient and they came back.
“The Kings are a proud team and, coming from the same position, and don’t read too much into the win and loss columns.
“You will see this team grow given their commitment. Despite a lot of losses they fight and want to win to end and never give up. I think Kings head coach Deon Davids and his staff can be proud of that.”
Smith said his tean had been their own worst enemies in a tight game. “We were good in the first 10 minutes and we kept the pressure on. But we were our own enemies because of our errors.
“The spirit the Kings played with was exceptional and it was typical South African derby rugby.
"We expected that. In the first half we should have made better use of our opportunities. All credit to the Kings for fighting back specially in the set piece where we said we wanted to dominate them.
“The Kings then scored a penalty try which was against our plans. The Kings spirit and fight was second to none.”
“We are at a stage in the competition where we needed to get better and we needed this win to boost morale.
“A lot of times we made things hard for ourselves and we need to look after the ball better.
“We had about nine starts in the Kings' 22 which we did not covert into tries and that is not good enough. That needs to change.”
On Saturday the Kings host Edinburgh at the Madibaz Stadium while the Cheetahs will be in action against Zebre in Bloemfontein.
After his team’s defeat against the Cheetahs, Kings head coach Deon Davids said hard work would be done on the training pitch in preparation for the Edinburgh’s visit.
“We were dominated in the scrums and could not get our lineout going in the first half. That upset our rhythm,” Davids said.
“We will have to re-look and rethink and keep on working hard to put things right. “Our forwards coach Robbi Kempson will look and analyse things again this week. We hope to rectify some of the stuff going forward.”
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