Friday 1 September 2017

Kings to conquer North

The Southern Kings will embark uncharted territory when they travel to Wales and Ireland as they debut in the new-look Guinness Pro 14 competition that kicks-off this weekend.


The Port Elizabeth-based side along with the Cheetahs were included in the newly renovated Pro 12 after being dropped from Super Rugby, the Southern Hemisphere’s premier competition.

The Southern Kings will travel to Wales first to face Scarlets on Saturday before heading to Ireland where they will face Connacht.

Scarlets, or Y Sgarlets if you’re a local, are the 2016/17 Pro 12 winners. The Welsh club ran out 46 – 22 victors against Irish club Munster. 

The club was founded in 2003 and is currently captained by Welsh international and British and Irish Lions player Ken Owens. Four players were included in the 2017 B&I Lions that toured New Zealand earlier this year. Two South Africans in former Springboks and Bulls prop Werner Kruger and former Southern Kings lock, David Bulbring are current members of the Scarlets squad.

The club also signed Welsh international and B&I Lions player Leigh Halfpenny for their upcoming Pro 14 season.

The two teams will play in Conference B along with another Welsh club, Dragons, two Irish clubs Ulster and Leinster, one Scottish club, Edinburgh and Italian club Benetton Treviso.

The Kings boast a number of former Sharks Super Rugby and Currie Cup players in the form of centre Zuks Vulindlu, winder S’bura Sithole, flank Khaya Majola and reserve hooker Stephan Coetzee.

The match will be played at the 14 870 capacity Parc y Scarlets Stadium in Llanelli. 

Kick-off is 17:30 (18:30 SA time) and the match will be televised on SuperSport 1.

Southern Kings:

15 Masixole Banda 14 Yaw Penxe 13 Berton Klaasen 12 Luzuko Vulindlu 11 Sibusiso Sithole 10 Kurt Coleman 9 Rudi van Rooyen 8 Andisa Ntsila 7 Victor Sekekete 6 Khaya Majola 5 Dries van Schalkwyk 4 Jurie van Vuuren 3 Rossouw de Klerk 2 Michael Willemse (capt) 1 Schalk Ferreira

Reserves: 

16 Stephan Coetzee 17 Luvuyo Pupuma 18 Entienne Swanepoel 19 Bobby de Wee 20 Siyabulela Mdaka 21 Godlen Masimla 22 Ntabeni Dukisa 23 Jacques Nel

Scarlets:

15 Leigh Halfpenny 14 Johnny McNicholl 13 Hadleigh Parkes 12 Scott Williams 11 Steffan Evans 10 Rhys Patchell 9 Gareth Davies 8 John Barclay (capt) 7 James Davies 6 Aaron Shingler 5 Tadhg Beirne 4 Jake Ball 3 Samson Lee 2 Ryan Elias 1 Rob Evans

Reserves:

16 Emyr Phillips 17 Dylan Evans 18 Werner Kruger 19 David Bulbring 20 Will Boyde 21 Jonathan Evans 22 Rhys Jones 23 Paul Asquith

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