With the 22nd year of Super Rugby fast approaching, we take a look a look at the Southern Kings Super Rugby Prospects in 2017.
Southern Kings Super Rugby Prospects
The South African teams, competing in two separate conferences, seem to relatively evenly matched. The early prediction is that the Lions will be the team to beat and the Kings likely to be the basement dwellers again. In between we are likely to see the a close contest for supremacy between the Bulls, Sharks, Stormers and Cheetahs. As we know, is a very long tournament and anything could possibly happen.
Player Movements
The Kings have had the busiest off season in terms of player movement, with a massive churn of playing staff.
Outgoing players include props Justin Ackerman to the Lions, Jacobie Adriaanse to the Bulls, Tom Botha to the Cheetahs and Sti Sithole to the Lions. Hookers Martin Ferreira and Edgar Marutlulle are off to the Stormers and Bulls respectively.
Locks JC Astle and Philip du Preez move to Mont-de-Marsan and former captain Steven Sykes is now at Oyonnax. Number 8’s moving along are Aidon Davis to Toulon, Jacques Engelbrecht Montauban and Junior Pokomela to the Cheetahs. Scrumhalf James Hall has decided not to return to the Kings and now turns out for Oyonnax.
Flyhalves not returning to Port Elizabeth are Louis Fouché who is off to Kubota Spears, Dewald Human to the Blue Bulls and Elgar Watts who returns to Griquas.
The Kings stocks at center has also taken a beating, with Lukhanyo Am moving to the Sharks, Shane Gates off to NTT Shining Arcs in Japan, the very promising Jeremy Ward to Sharks and Stefan Watermeyer who has retired.
To round off the exodus, fullback Jaco van Tonder is off to Italy to play for Valpolicella and Jurgen Visser who moves to NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes.
The incoming crew includes props: Justin Forwood from the Eastern Province Kings, Ross Geldenhuys from the Highlanders, Chris Heiberg from the Western Force, Schalk van der Merwe from Montpellier and Dayan van der Westhuizen from the Bulls. New hookers are Kurt Haupt from the SWD Eagles and Mike Willemse from the Stormers.
There is a new lock in Irné Herbst from the Bulls as well a number 8 in Ruaan Lerm from the Lions. Scrumhalf stocks are strengthened with the arrival of Louis Schreuder from the Stormers, Ricky Schroeder from the Eastern Province Kings and Poeris van Rooyen from the Griquas.
Flyhalf Lionel Cronjé, who is currently out of contract, joins the Kings to give his rugby career a second go and at wing Alshaun Bock joins from the Griquas.
At fullback Namibian international Chrysander Botha joins the fray, along with Ntabeni Dukisa from Griquas, previously from the Border Bulldogs.
Performance in 2016
The Kings Super Rugby results were very disappointing. They were severely hampered in 2016 by only being able to throw a squad to together in the final week of January, with very little experience and no preseason to speak of. They finished 4th in the Africa 2 Conference,
7th in the South African Group and 17th overall.
The Coach
Head Coach Deon Davids has a second year in charge of the Kings. As touched on earlier, he had a nightmare start to his Super Rugby coaching career, only being confirmed in the job in late January, with a squad of players drawn from the local Currie Cup side and a number of others who had not earned a Super Rugby contract elsewhere.
The start to his 2017 Super Rugby campaign is a little easier than 2016 as he starts the season with a full year’s worth of experience in the competition and a much more stable lead up to the kick off of the first game. What he will have to contend with though is a significant loss of players from his 2016 squad and an influx of new players, very few of who have any significant Super Rugby experience.
The Style of Play
How the Kings will approach the game in 2017 is going to be a bit of a lottery. There is a smattering of talent in the squad, especially the young players who have come through the Kings Academy. How the new recruits gel with those remaining from the 2016 campaign will directly affect how Davids directs play.
Challenges may well be experienced in the position of lock, number 8, flyhalf and in the centers. There is some strike power in the outside backs, but how much quality ball will end up there?
This squad has not been together for long enough to have built up the aerobic fitness to follow what the Lions and more recently the Cheetahs have done in recent years. At a guess, this will be another year of blood and guts determination from the Kings and we see nothing changing until they are able to secure a long term sponsor or investor. There has been a lot of mention in the media about a prospective investor from the USA, but nothing concrete has materialized.
The Playing Kit
Courtesy of SA Rugby, here is the Kings new hero kit for 2017.
With rumours starting to circulate that the number of teams in Super Rugby may be reduced, the Kings will be desperate to record more than the one win they managed in 2016 to strengthen their case for staying in the competition.
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