Word from the Kings camp

The Southern Kings will play their second away game this weekend when they face the Hurricanes in Wellington on Saturday. The Hurricanes had a bye last weekend after a narrow 23 - 19 win over the Highlanders a fortnight ago.

Their previous games includes a 29 - 28 win over the Crusaders, they went down 18 - 12 in their second game against the Reds and a first round 34 - 20 lose to the Blues.

Looking ahead to their game this weekend Matt Sexton said the team had settled in and preparations are going well.

“We’ve done some previews and have been looking at the footage around the Hurricanes, so we can prepare ourselves for a great performance on Saturday,” he said.

The Kings need to retain better ball possession and tighten up on their defense, Crusaders gained a lot of momentum in the contact situation and the Kings cant afford to do the same against the Hurricanes.

“If we give them the same time and space and momentum as we did last weekend against the Crusaders it will be another long day. So we’ve been working pretty hard on making sure that doesn’t happen, as well as making sure that we hold onto the ball through phases.”

Southern Kings Director of Rugby, Alan Solomons, said the team will be led by Andries Strauss, who returns after recovering from a bruised AC joint, and will be joined by Steven Sykes, who has recovered from the knock he took during the Chiefs game and takes up the vice captaincy role.

“Apart from Andries the back line remains exactly the same. The bench is a little different because we’ve retained Waylon Murray on the bench,” he said.

Solomons also added that Hadleigh Parkes will give more option on the bench as he can slot in anywhere from 12 to 15, also the reason for Elric van Vuuren dropping out of the match day 22.

“Grant Kemp also comes onto the bench, with Daniel Adongo, who moves from the starting 15 onto the bench to make way for Sykes,” he said.

Hanness Franklin, who has recovered from his torn knee ligaments, also joins the team on the bench.

Cornell Du Preez will sit the game out due to a tight hamstring, with Devin Oosthuizen coming up in his place in the starting 15 and Rynier Bernardo coming onto the bench.