Exciting game awaits in Port Elizabeth

An exciting games awaits us in Port Elizabeth this afternoon, when the Southern Kings play the Cheetahs from Bloemfontein. The Kings would love to build on the momentum from a forth night ago when they beat the Highlanders in a four try bonus point win. The Cheetahs on the other hand are still in contention of a play off spot and getting a win in today will put them in a better position to make that more of a reality.

There will be quite a few players to keep your eye on that will add the ingredients for a very exciting game. The Cheetahs have a very potent back 3 in Willie le Roux, Ryno Benjamin and Hennie Daniller with the likes of Raymond Rhule on the bench, they can easily turn any situation into a scoring opportunity. Rhule and le Roux are also among the top try scorers with le Roux on 4 and Rhule on 5. The Kings will depend heavily on SP Marais to start something from the back with Siyanda Grey and Marcello Sampson to turn on the gas when needed.

Amongst the midfield its the reliable and solid paring of Andries Strauss and Ronnie Cooke against the exciting Johann Sadie and Robert Ebersohn with inside backs Elgar Watts and points machine Demetri Catrakilis calling the shots and directing play. Catrakilis is currently 9th on the overall points log with 107 points, he will also be looking to add more to that total before he joins the Springbok training group in the week. Two of the Cheetahs top points scorers are not featuring in this game, namely Burton Francis on 62 and Johan Goosen on 43.

The Cheetahs have two very explosive scrum halves in Piet van Zyl and Sarel Pretorius on the bench. For the Kings Shaun Venter has showed some promising performances and has really made the no 9 jersey his own with Argentinian Nicolas Vergallo as his back up.

But the battle will be won upfront with two strong leaders and players that prefer to lead from the front with Adrian Strauss and Luke Watson. Watson had a strong game against the Highlanders and looked like he was almost back to full strength, scoring two of his teams four tries. Cornel du Preez, who was man of the match in their last game, and Wimpie van der Walt will give their assistance to captain Watson to try and out muscle the likes of Philip van der Walt, Lappies Labuschagne and Heinrich Brüssow.

Another interesting tussle will be between Wimpie van der Walt and Lappies Labuschagne to reign as the best defender. Labuschagne is currently leading the tackle count on 194 followed by van der Walt on 184. There is quite a few Cheetah players amongst the top tackles, Phillip van der Walt is 5th on 162, Heincrich Brussow 9th on 148, Robert Ebersohn 11th on 148 and Francious Uys is 15th on 138. The closest Kings player to van der Walt is du Preez who is 19th on 136 tackels.

Steven Sykes and David Bullbring will also have their hands full with the likes of Francois Uys and Lood de Jager come line out time with Ligtoring Landman to play off the bench. Lourens Adriaanse and Springboks Adriaan Strauss and Coenie Oosthuizen will try and force their dominance on Kevin Buys, Bandise Maku and Schalk Ferreira who's really been impressive and gave some international front rankers a hard time in the scrums. 

This should be a very entertaining game with still so much to play for on both sides. Kick off will be at 3pm.