EP Kings beat College Rovers in opening season friendly

Jan 27 • National, South Africa • 2875 Views • Comments Off on EP Kings beat College Rovers in opening season friendly

The Eastern Province Kings Vodacom Cup team beat the College Rovers in their first friendly match played on the NMMU B Field on Saturday, the 26th of January.
The EP Kings trailed behind the Rovers during the first 60 minutes, but finally drew ahead, finishing the game on 19 points to the Rovers 14.

Try scorers for the EP Kings were Paul Schoeman, Marmaan Mazouk and Yusuf (Boela) Abrahams, with two conversions by Scot van Breda. The Rovers reciprocated with two tries of their own by Jors Dannhauser and Chris Kemp, with Dannhauser converting both.

EP Kings president, Cheeky Watson, said the team’s performance, which featured nine players of colour in the starting fifteen, and 16 in the squad of 22, was a true testament to the quality of players being brought through the ranks via the Kings Academy, highlighting the Kings commitment to transformation.

“This highlights the calibre of our young players coming through the Kings Academy; that they are able to take on one of the top professional club sides and win,” he said.
Coach David Maidza said there were a number of areas in the game that were pleasing as a first hit out.

“I felt that we defended well for long periods during the game, but of course we will review the match and see where we need to improve on defence.”

“We have not spent much time on our breakdown work and it showed during the match where we were beaten on numerous occasions to the ball on the ground. We will put more emphasis on this facet of the game in the next couple of weeks,” he said.

Maidza said all in all the game had revealed that there was still a lot of work to do, but it was a good foundation for them to work from.