The Southern Kings, who will be looking to end their Australasian tour with a first win Down Under when they take on the Rebels in Melbourne.
The Southern Kings, who will be looking to end their Australasian tour with a first win Down Under when they take on the Rebels in Melbourne.
Last week’s exciting draw against the Brumbies in Canberra will have given the Kings hope, but they would also have taken note of the Rebels’ victory over the Force in Perth.
The Southern Kings will be protecting a proud South African record in Melbourne tomorrow morning in the clash of the "newbies” against the Rebels.
Even though the Rebels, who joined Vodacom Super Rugby in 2011, have managed victories over three New Zealand franchises in the past two seasons – they beat the Hurricanes in 2011 and the Crusaders and Blues last year – the Melbournians have lost all 10 of their matches against teams from South Africa.
The Rebels’ average score over the last two years against New Zealand teams is 24-37, but against South African opposition it is 20-40. A 20-point difference might be wishful thinking for the Kings, but they won’t be looking at record scores, just a win.
Kings captain Andries Strauss said the main thing for his team was to keep the momentum going, improve from their previous matches and limit their penalty count against a dangerous Rebels team.
“There were a few crucial areas that we still need to work on, such as being aware of the space on the field, limiting the opponent’s space and getting used to the levels of pressure on the field – but these are things we can only learn on the field, through experience,” said Strauss.
The match takes place tomorrow at 11.40am (SA time).
The Southern Kings team is: George Whitehead, Sergeal Petersen, Waylon Murray, Andries Strauss (captain), Ronnie Cooke, Demetri Catrakillis, Shaun Venter; Cornell du Preez, Wimpie van der Walt, Devin Oosthuizen, Rynier Bernardo, Steven Sykes, Grant Kemp, Hannes Franklin, Schalk Ferreira. Replacements: Bandise Maku, Kevin Buys, David Bulbring, Jacques Engelbrecht, Nicolas Vergallo, Marcello Sampson, Siviwe Soyzwapi.
