The views of the Southern Kings were starting to change slightly among the media and were even given the thumbs up to stand a chance in beating a struggling Bulls side. They also welcomed back their inspirational captain, Luke Watson who got injured in their first game against the Force, but not even he could change the outcome of the match as the effects of a tiring tour was taking its toll on the players as nothing went their way on the night and unable to score a single point, went down 34 - 0. They played the Cheetahs the following week in Bloemfontein, they kept the home side from scoring four tries but were unable to close the 14 point deficit. The Waratahs came to Port Elizabeth to give the Southern Kings their first proper hiding, scoring 11 tries in the process to bring the final score to 72 - 10 after the 80 minutes.
The Southern Kings had to dig deep for their 10th consecutive match when they faced the bottom of the log Highlanders. Alan Solomons always said the team is build on character, and character was maybe a bit more then what they needed when they faced the Highlanders, with one game left before they get a well deserved beak. Their character came through strong against the Highlanders, Watson was leading magnificently from the front with two of his teams four tries. Their defense held out when it was needed the most and they recorded a well deserved bonus point win, 34 - 27. They were unable to build on that momentum when they came back from their break to face the Cheetahs at home and went down 22 - 34.
The Southern Kings have showed they are here to play rugby, their record might not look that great as they played 12, won 3 drawn 1 and lost 8, they have scored 244 points and conceded 415 points, scored 22 and conceded 50 tries with 2 bonus points and 24 log points. Maybe not bad for a debut season but that will definitely change with more experience.
What good has Super Rugby done for the Eastern Cape and the Southern Kings? Its brought top rugby and players back to the Eastern Cape, its filled the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium with much joy. SA rugby is again starting to look at players, with Sergeal Petersen selected for the u20 side and Demetri Catrakilis invited to join the Springbok training camp, and with another year they might look at players like SP Marais, Shaun Venter, Cornel du Preez, Wimpie van der Walt or Jacques Engelbrecht just to name a few.
In my opinion the best thing SARU can do for EP Rugby if they really want to see growth in the province is to accommodate them to play in the Premier Division of the Currie Cup, not a promo/relegation but to add them to the competition. And this is why; let's say the Kings beat the Lions in the promo/relegation match at the end of the Super Rugby campaign, EP Kings will play 1st division where the rest of the teams will go into Super Rugby 2014 with Currie Cup momentum and can easily adapt to the pace of Super Rugby, the Southern Kings will always be a few paces behind.
There is with out a doubt something special happening within Eastern Province Rugby, NMMU having their best season to date in the Varsity Cup, Despatch winning the first ever Cell C Community Cup, EP Kings reached the semi final in the Vodacom Cup, rugby is definitely on a high and we can only hope the momentum won't be stopped and we see EP rugby fall back into a dark place.
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