Kings Pro 14 season

Kings touring squad has been announced:

Cape Town - Southern Kings hooker, Michael Willemse, will lead the Port Elizabeth side on their maiden PRO14 tour.

Head coach Deon Davids announced his 27-man touring squad on Monday that will open their Guinness PRO14 season with an encounter against defending champions, the Scarlets, in Wales before travelling to Ireland to take on Connacht. He confirmed the hard-working Willemse as captain for the tour.

In confirming the 24-year-old Willemse as the first Southern Kings captain in the Guinness PRO14 Championship, Davids described the decision to select the hooker as the team leader as a “natural” one.

Willemse, who was part of the Southern Kings’ Super Rugby side earlier in the year, re-joined the Eastern Cape side after having moved to the Golden Lions in July.

“I have decided that Michael Willemse will lead this group on this tour,” Davids said on Monday.

“He re-joined us and has been with us for about a week. Mike is quite familiar with our team culture and the way we play.

“I think he was one of the standout performers for us last season in the Super Rugby competition. He is one of our core group of players that are still part of our setup. He has been a natural choice for me to take up that role as captain.”

Willemse joined the Southern Kings for the 2017 Super Rugby season after having represented the Stormers from 2014 to 2016.

The Cape Town-born hooker has previously represented South Africa at Under-20 level at the World Rugby Under-20 Champs in 2013 where he made five appearances.

The 1.85-metre, 104 kg front-rower attended Grey High School in Port Elizabeth before furthering his rugby at the University of Cape Town prior to joining Western Province.

Davids also named a 27-member squad for the tour – 15 forwards and 12 backs – including 10 players who were part of the Southern Kings’ Super Rugby campaign.

The squad is also not lacking in players with experience in playing in the PRO14 competition.

Loose-forward Dries van Schalkwyk, formerly with Zebre, and Rossouw de Klerk, formerly with Glasgow Warriors, are part of the Southern Kings’ touring squad.

Davids is looking forward to seeing his squad gel and grow together from their first tour of the Guinness PRO14.

“There are always positives when you go on tour so early – you get to spend some time with the players individually, and the players also get to know each other better. So there will be a lot of benefits from this tour,” the head coach said.

“When we come back we will have 27 players who will have a good understanding of where we are and where we need to go. Players that are staying behind will have time to work on aspects of their game – whether it is conditioning or skills. When we get back we will suddenly have a larger pool of players we can work with.”

The touring squad will leave South Africa on Tuesday afternoon for Wales, where they will face the Scarlets on Saturday, September 2, at Parc y Scarlets.

Davids will name the Southern Kings match-day squad for the opening match on Thursday.

Southern Kings Guinness PRO14 touring squad for Wales and Ireland

Forwards

Tango Balekile
Stephan Coetzee
Rossouw de Klerk
Bobby de Wee
Martin Dreyer
Schalk Ferreira
Khaya Majola
Siyabulela Mdaka
Andisa Ntsila
Luvuyo Pupuma
Victor Sekekete
Entienne Swanepoel
Dries van Schalkwyk
Jurie van Vuuren
Michael Willemse (captain)

Backs

Masixole Banda
Kurt Coleman
Ntabeni Dukisa
Rowan Gouws
Berton Klaasen
Godlen Masimla
Jacques Nel
Yaw Penxe
Sibusiso Sithole
Rudi van Rooyen
Luzuko Vulindlu
Oliver Zono

It will be interesting to see how the Kings go in their first season, lots of rough diamonds and unknowns.

I was gonna say - with all the talk about the Kings only having 15 players left where have they managed to find all these players from??

Will this team be competitive?

That's the thing, you might think not at all, but they might just unearth some real talent

RDW_Scotland wrote:I was gonna say - with all the talk about the Kings only having 15 players left where have they managed to find all these players from??

Will this team be competitive?

A lot of those players have super rugby experience. Some comes from teams like Pumas or Border Bulldogs which are stronger than we realise.

It will be interesting to see how they gel together and how they will adapt to NH conditions and slightly more kicking game..

Anyway, i think some of the weakest sides could suffer heavy losses when traveling to PE or Bloemfontein.

Where's Lionel Cronje gone?

Japan, the Club Jake White is going to coach

That's a big loss for the Kings

In advance lads, I apologise for the utterly awful conditions that the Southern Kings are likely to play in when they visit Galway on Saturday!! Looking forward to welcoming one of the South African teams though, expect a grueling slugfest if the conditions are as expected and no one can hold the ball, but if the rain holds off and we have a dry pitch we may see some decent running rugby from both teams.

Anyone to keep an eye out for from the Kings?

For Connacht you might be familiar with Marmion as Conor Murray's backup for Ireland, but not sure what other exposure their might be to them.

Does it ever not rain in Galway??

Marshes wrote:
Anyone to keep an eye out for from the Kings?

Back 3 very lively and quick, loose forwards Ntsila and Sekekete are powerful runners. Loosehead Ferreira was immense against the Scarlets last week.

If he comes off the bench, flyhalf Zono is said to be a real prospect as well.

VinceWLB wrote:

Marshes wrote:
Anyone to keep an eye out for from the Kings?

Back 3 very lively and quick, loose forwards Ntsila and Sekekete are powerful runners. Loosehead Ferreira was immense against the Scarlets last week.

If he comes off the bench Zono is said to be a real prospect as well.

The fly half seemed pretty decent in fairness to. His kick for their try against the Scarlets was taken so layed back, but was spot on. Think he could make a bit of a name for himself this season.

The thing with the Kings is there aren't really any household names in the squad, it makes it exciting on hand hand because you never know what talent will be unearthed, but it does suggest a poor season awaits.

sibusiso Sithole played for the Sharks, he is lively, albeit maybe a bit suspect in defence

Sithole? Need to be careful pronouncing that name!

Biltong wrote:The thing with the Kings is there aren't really any household names in the squad, it makes it exciting on hand hand because you never know what talent will be unearthed, but it does suggest a poor season awaits.

sibusiso Sithole played for the Sharks, he is lively, albeit maybe a bit suspect in defence

Mate, if it wasn't for Cloete leaving, i would have said they have as good a squad as in their SR campaign. They seem overstocked at tighthead, which is something they didn't have in SR. They have a few key players who are due to come back from injury, most notably openside CJ Velleman who will help them greatly at the breakdown.

ScarletSpiderman wrote:
The fly half seemed pretty decent in fairness to.  His kick for their try against the Scarlets was taken so layed back, but was spot on.  Think he could make a bit of a name for himself this season.

Could flourish with gametime and if given confidence. That said.. Stormers fans weren't exactly sorry to see him leaving.

His break and pass to the winger in the first half were delicious as well.

RDW_Scotland wrote:Sithole? Need to be careful pronouncing that name!

Hehe, you pronounce it See - toll - eh

Biltong wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:Sithole? Need to be careful pronouncing that name!

Hehe, you pronounce it See -  toll - eh

Funny that - us Edinburgh fans pronounce it Glasgow!

RDW_Scotland wrote:

Biltong wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:Sithole? Need to be careful pronouncing that name!

Hehe, you pronounce it See -  toll - eh

Funny that - us Edinburgh fans pronounce it Glasgow!

I'm glad someone knew what that joke meant!

Where's Jimbo when you need him...

RDW_Scotland wrote:Does it ever not rain in Galway??

The old folks tell tales of a sunny day but not in my time! Its also the wind of the Atlantic, it almost takes offense if it sees you carrying an umbrella.

Still I mighty town for a night out!

Marshes wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:Does it ever not rain in Galway??

The old folks tell tales of a sunny day but not in my time! Its also the wind of the Atlantic, it almost takes offense if it sees you carrying an umbrella.

Still I mighty town for a night out!

Aye I'd love to visit - I put it on my list of places to go for my stag do last year but ended up being too expensive/awkward to get to at the time.

Is this experiment going to work? The attendance today was quite frankly embarrassing and it's the only thing people are talking about.

It's a huge stadium, of course it's going to look empty, they still had more than for their opening game in their 2017 SR campaign. I think a lot of fans were disheartened and didn't attend because of the trashing this morning..

The crowd was 3,000 apparently. Its disappointing but South Africa were playing today and from what I've just been told there could be 20,000 at the Cheetahs game.

Artful_Dodger wrote:The crowd was 3,000 apparently.  Its disappointing but South Africa were playing today and from what I've just been told there could be 20,000 at the Cheetahs game.

I have read could be 30 000+ at the Cheetahs game but it's free tickets and unlike PE, weather has been nice at Bloemfontein..