Teenager Sergeal Petersen shines in debut win of Southern Kings

Teenager Sergeal Petersen scored two tries as Southern Kings of South Africa made a dream Super 15 debut with a 22-10 victory over Australia's Western Force.

Petersen, 18, made a seamless transition from schools to southern hemisphere provincial rugby union by touching down in each half as the Kings turned a 10-5 half-time deficit into a 12-point victory befor a jubilant 30,000 crowd.

His first try on 15 minutes gave the Kings the lead and the second on 60 minutes stretched the lead to six points for an outfit elevated to the big time at the expense of the Golden Lions despite being only a second-tier Currie Cup side.

Petersen grabbed the loose ball after a kick by scrumhalf Shaun Venter was parried to race over for the first and he sidestepped an Australian and handed off another to claim the second. "You cannot ask for better than this, and a big thank you to everyone who supported us. We played as a team and that was what brought us victory," said Petersen after being voted man of the match.

Former Central Cheetahs centre Andries Strauss took over as skipper when Luke Watson was injured and he revelled in the win as the Kings made a much better start than many South Africans expected given the inexperience of the squad.

"This was a match we had to win so that the public would support us and the players would believe in themselves," he said.

Flyhalf Demetri Catrakilis overcame early goal-kicking jitters to plant four penalty goals between the posts as the Kings overcame the first-half loss of flanker and talisman Watson to a neck injury.