ABSA Currie Cup Premier Division Rugby returns to the shores of the Nelson Mandela Bay this weekend, when the Eastern Province Kings face old foes the Golden Lions from Johannesburg at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth on Saturday.
The Kings have had two pre-season friendlies against the Vodacom Blue Bulls and DHL Western Province in preparation for the much anticipated 2015 Currie Cup season.
The Bulls and Province sent down a mixture of youth and experienced Springboks. In the first friendly the Bulls were just too strong as they turned a 21 - 3 half-time lead into a 33 - 10 final score. Province's match was a much closer affair as the visitors tipped the Kings by three points after they turned a 14 - 13 half-time lead into a 21 - 18 full-time score after the eighty minutes.
The visiting Lions had one friendly against the Sharks in Pietermaritzburg last week. The team from Johannesburg went down to a spirited Sharks side, 29 - 33, after a commanding 21 - 12 lead at the break.
Kings' headcoach, Brent Janse van Rensburg appointed Luke Watson as his captain for Saturday's opener.
There are no real surprises to the Kings starting XV, Scott van Breda comes in at fullback with speedsters Sylvain Mahuza and Luther Obi forming the rest of the outside backs.
JP du Plessis, who had an impressive run in the friendlies gets a start alongside Tim Whitehead in the mid-field. George Whitehead and Enrico Acker forms the halfback combination.
Tim Agaba will combine with Stefan Willemse and Watson to form the loose trio, while Cornel Hess, Steven Sykes, Tom Botha, Martin Ferreira and Schalk Ferreira finish off the tight five.
Kick-off is at 14:15.
EP Kings:
15 Scott van Breda 14 Sylvain Mahuza 13 JP du Plessis 12 Tim Whitehead (vc) 11 Luther Obi 10 George Whitehead 9 Enrico Acker 8 Tim Agaba 7 Stefan Willemse 6 Luke Watson (c) 5 Cornel Hess 4 Steven Sykes 3 Tom Botha 2 Martin Ferreira 1 Schalk Ferreira
Reserves:
16 Michael van Vuuren 17 Simon Kerrod 18 Jacques Engelbrecht 19 Paul Schoeman 20 Kevin Luiters 21 Karlo Aspeling 22 Siyanda Grey
Xerox Golden Lions:
15 Ruan Combrinck 14 Courtnall Skosan 13 Harold Vorster 12 Howard Mnisi 11 Anthony Volmink 10 Marnitz Boshoff 9 Ross Cronje 8 Ruaan Lerm 7 Kwagga Smith 6 Jaco Kriel (c) 5 Martin Muller 4 Franco Mostert 3 Julian Redelinghuys 2 Malcolm Marx 1 Jacques van Rooyen
Reserves:
16 Robbie Coetzee 17 Ruan Dreyer 18 MB Lusaseni 19 Steph de Wit 20 Lohan Jacobs 21 Stokkies Hanekom 22 Jaco van der Walt
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