Cooke to lead Kings

Eastern Province Kings head coach, Carlos Spencer, has named a fairly unchanged team to take on the GKW Griquas in Kimberly on Saturday at 14.30.

Spencer announced today that Ronnie Cooke will be leading the team in the absence of Darron Nell (bench) and Steven Sykes (unavailable) on Saturday.

“Darron Nell is currently battling with a calf strain and will undergo fitness tests on Thursday, if he passes he will move to the bench,” he said.

The changes to the starting line up include Cameron Lindsay moving up from the bench to cover for Nell at lock opposite Steven Cummins, while Tim Agaba moves up from the bench to eighth man.

Paul Schoeman moves from eighth man to flank, to cover for Stefan Willemse, who is out with a shoulder injury.

“I think Tim is an outright eight, I was impressed with the energy that he brought when he came on last week Saturday,” he said.

The only change on the bench, besides Nell, is the inclusion of George Whitehead.

Spencer said the team line outs continued to be frustrating, but said he did not want to go in depth on the matter.

“It was a big issue for us, we did put ourselves in positions where we got ourselves back into the game and if we had won even half of those line outs I believe we could have gone on to win the match.

Spencer said the team was looking forward to the clash against the Griquas.

“This is an important game for us and we’re excited. We feel if we just stick to the plan, and look after ourselves, I’m sure we will do fine,” he said.

Spencer said the biggest challenge for the team was the first fifteen to twenty minutes of the game, where the opposition managed to get a head start.

“Our focus is on those first ten to fifteen minutes, it is important that we get ourselves into the game and just stick to the plan,” he said.

EP Kings:

1 Charles Marais 2 Martin Ferreira 3 CJ van der Linde 4 Cameron Lindsay 5 Steven Cummins 6 Paul Schoeman 7 Devin Oosthuizen 8 Tim Agaba 9 Tobie Botes 10 Gary van Aswegen 11 Ntabeni Dukisa 12 Shane Gates 13 Tim Whitehead 14 Ronnie Cooke (c) 15 Siviwe Soyizwapi

Reserves:

16 Albe de Swardt 17 Charl du Plessis 18 Darron Nell 19 Thembelani Bholi 20 Kevin Luiters 21 George Whitehead 22 Scott van Breda