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Preview: EP Kings vs Griquas

Sep 25 • General News • 1916 Views • Comments Off on Preview: EP Kings vs Griquas

The seventh placed Eastern Province Kings will face the eight placed ORC Griquas in a Round 8 ABSA Currie Cup Premier Division match at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth on Saturday afternoon.
Both teams have picked up wins in Round 6, but failed to build on those performances when they lost last weekend. The Kings, with probably the more significant win, beat the Toyota Free State Cheetahs 32 – 24, after they were reduced to fourteen men early in the second half. The Griquas had a convincing, but somewhat surprisingly four try bonus point win against the Steval Pumas when they won 32 – 15 in Kimberley.
Last week the Pumas won their return match against the Kings in Nelspruit, 20 – 9, after the first game ended 15 – 13 in Port Elizabeth in favour of the visitors. Griquas also lost to the Cheetahs in their return match, 44 – 24, in Bloemfontein after the first one ended 31 – 9 to the visitors in Kimberley.
In last year’s encounter the Kings travelled to Kimberley to face Griquas, despite the Kings trailing by one point at half-time, Griquas scored five second half tries to record a 45 – 25 win.

With two away games against the Bulls and Western Province awaiting the Kings, they need to pull out all the stops this weekend to avoid another bottom of the log finish for the second successive year. The Griquas will still need to face the Sharks at home, a team they beat 21 – 18 in Durban last year, and the Lions in Johannesburg. A last place finish will mean the Kings will have to play a Promotion/Relegation match to retain their spot in the 2016 Currie Cup Premier Division.

Scott van Breda tops the scoring column for the Kings, with a total of 53 points, which includes 7 conversions and 13 penalties. Robust flanker, Paul Schoeman and speedster Siyanda Grey are the top try scorers with two each.

With only one point separating the bottom two teams, both with one win each, the Kings have scored 134 points compared to Griquas’ 143. The Kings have conceded 204 points, slightly less then the 248 of the Griquas, which gives them a 70 points difference compared to the 105 of Griquas. Kings have scored 14 tries compared to Griquas’ 16, but conceded 7 tries less, 24, compared to Griquas’ 31.

Kings coach, Brent Janse van Rensburg opted for several rotational changes and one injury enforced change to his team that will face Griquas.

In the backline, a grade three hamstring tear will see Siyanda Grey sit out for a lengthy period as he will be replaced by Sylvian Mahuza on the right wing.

Amongst the forwards, Lizo Gqoboka returns to the front row in place of Schalk Ferreira, who will be on the bench, along with hard-working loose forwards Thembelani Bholi and Tim Agaba.

Bholi has been one of the outstanding players in the Kings team this season and Janse van Rensburg said it was important not to over-play him.

“Thembelani has played the full 80 minutes for several matches in a row and we feel he needs to have a break at this stage,” Janse van Rensburg said.

This means Cornell Hess will start at lock, with Stefan Willemse, Paul Schoeman and Jacques Engelbrecht making up the loose trio.

Janse van Rensburg said they were disappointed with their performance against the Pumas in Nelspruit on Friday.

“We were off the pace and did not get the sort of possession we needed from the set-piece play,” Janse van Rensburg said. “We also lost the kicking game to them, not being accurate enough, and this week we need to focus on our processes and aim to play to our full potential.”
EP Kings:
15 Scott van Breda 14 Sylvian Mahuza 13 JP du Plessis 12 Tim Whitehead (capt) 11 Luther Obi 10 Karlo Aspeling 9 Dwayne Kelly 8 Jacques Engelbrecht 7 Stefan Willemse 6 Paul Schoeman 5 Cornell Hess 4 Steven Sykes (vc) 3 Tom Botha 2 Martin Ferreira 1 Schalk Ferreira
Replacements:
16 Edgar Marutlulle 17 Basil Short 18 Simon Kerrod 19 Thembelani Bholi 20 Tim Agaba 21 Enrico Acker 22 Elgar Watts
Griquas:
15 Gouws Prinsloo 14 Danie Dames 13 Michael Van Der Spuy 12 Clinton Swart 11 Ntabeni Dukisa 10 Francois Brummer 9 Tian Meyer (capt) 8 Carel Greeff 7 Jonathan Janse Van Rensburg 6 RJ Lebenberg, 5 Hugo Kloppers 4 Jonathan Adendorf 3 Ewald Van Der Westhuizen 2 Martin Bezuidenhout 1 Steph Roberts
Replacements:

16 AJ Le Roux 17 Stephan Kotze 18 Stephan Greeff 19 Wendal Wehr 20 Dylon Frylink 21 Jonathan Francke 22 Ederies Arendse

Written by Pierre Mc Leod
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