The Southern Kings will return to their Kingdom, the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, when they face the Bulls from Pretoria this coming Saturday. It will be the first time that these two sides will face each other in a Super Rugby format.
Both teams will enter this match with a win behind their name. The Bulls recorded a 26 - 20 win over the Cheetahs at Loftus and the Kings a memorable 30 - 27, in their first away win over the Melbourne Rebels in Australia.
The Kings will enter this game with a lot of confidence after a successful tour abroad, managing a draw against log leaders the Brumbies a win against the Rebels and bringing 7 log points back from 4 games. They also have their inspirational captain Luke Watson back to lead the team onto the field on Saturday.
The match against the 3 times Super Rugby champions will by no means be an easy one for the Kings. One can expect a tough battle upfront and the always accurate boot of Springbok flyhalf Morne Steyn to get the scoreboard ticking. The Kings also have some pretty solid house hold names that will be ready for the Bulls onslaught, namely Schalk Ferreira, Wimpie van der Walt, Cornell du Preez, Rynier Bernardo, Jacques Engelbrecht, guys that have shown us these last couple of weeks they are here to play rugby. And if that is not enough they still have the likes of Bandise Maku, Steven Sykes, David Bulbring and their captain Watson.
Teams have showed in the past that the Bulls struggle if they are physically matched upfront and their flyhalf is putt under pressure. My prediction is, its going to be a typical South African derby with a potential 7 to 15 points difference. The Bulls fans will come out in numbers to support their adopted team, but be assured that the Kings Army will let their voice be heard come Saturday evening.
Southern Kings:
15 George Whitehead 14 Sergeal Petersen 13 Waylon Murray 12 Andries Strauss (VC) 11 Ronnie Cooke 10 Demetri Catrakilis 9 Shaun Venter 8 Luke Watson (C) 7 Wimpie van der Walt 6 Cornell du Preez 5 David Bulbring 4 Steven Sykes 3 Kevin Buys 2 Bandise Maku 1 Schalk Ferreira
Replacements:
16 Hannes Franklin 17 Grant Kemp 18 Rynier Bernardo 19 Jacques Engelbrecht 20 Nicolas Vergallo 21 Marcello Sampson 22 Siviwe Soyizwapi
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