Players to watch: Virgile Lacombe and Nicolás Vergallo
With the new Super Rugby season looming large on the horizon we take a look at each of the 15 competitors. First up, the Kings!
2013 is set to be a long, tough debut season for the newest, and most controversial, addition to Super Rugby. Doubters have been proved wrong before, but don't bet your house on the Kings winning any trophies.
Last Year: The Kings weren't part of the 2012 season but they were never far from the headlines. Eventually SARU were forced to make good on their promises to the South African government that the Eastern Cape would get a Super Rugby franchise, and the subsequent axing of the Lions will go down as one of the biggest travesties of sporting justice the game has ever seen. The prolonged wrangle - and the eventual decision to set up a promotion-relegation clashes at the end of this season - affected the ability of both the Kings and Lions to secure contracts with key players, which was always going to be necessary since the EP Currie Cup squad fell way short of the quality and depth needed to compete at this level.
This year: Joining the rugby world's longest, most attritional competition has historically been a tough task. The Rebels and Force are still struggling to claw their way up the hierarchy. The Kings' uncertain future beyond this season has meant that top quality players are not flocking toward Port Elizabeth and the squad looks very short on firepower, especially up front. If the Kings pack regularly gets a thrashing - which many pundits are predicting - keeping morale up with be hard and avoiding the wooden spoon will be a near-impossible task. If results fail to come and fans stay away as a consequence, the objective of building the game in the Eastern Cape will suffer too. Their draw is a tough one. The Kings start with probably their easiest game of the year but then host last year's finalists on consecutive weekends before embarking on their first tour of New Zealand and Australia. Squad depth has always been vital in this competition and the Kings are looking rather thin. Trips to Loftus and Kings Park in the last few weeks could turn ugly.
Players to watch: Former Toulouse team-mates Virgile Lacombe and Nicolas Vergalo will add some vital experience at hooker and scrum-half respectively. Unfortunately, two-time Heineken Cup-winner Lacombe has already signed a deal to return to France to play for Racing Métro next season. Argentina international Vergallo is likely to hang around hoping to set a trend for his countrymen who have ambitions to play in the Rugby Championship. No need to introduce skipper Luke Watson, who has been making headlines in South Africa for years, but not always for the right reasons. Reports coming out of PE suggest that the son of the province's president is suffering from big-fish-in-a-small-pond syndrome. Watson is a quality player and the Kings will need him to do plenty of hard graft, not just be the hero looking to score tries off the back of mauls.
Noteworthy signings: Tomás Leonardi (Argentina); Daniel Adongo (Kenya, Countie Manukau); Demetri Catrakilis (Western Province); Ronnie Cooke (Grenoble); Virgile Lacombe (Toulouse); Bandise Maku (Lions); Waylon Murray (Lions); Michael Killian (Lions); Andries Strauss (Cheetahs); Steven Sykes (from Sharks); Nicolás Vergallo (Toulouse)
Prospects: Not good. Don't surprised if the Kings finish the season without a win. In theory, their best chance of victory would be at home to the Force, but that game is their opening fixture so they wouldn't have had the kind of game time required to get a newly-assembled team functioning as a cohesive unit. The Rebels would be another target but the fixture in Melbourne comes at the end of a month-long overseas trip, which starts in Christchurch where a hiding is on the cards. The Kings' most important games of the year are set to be the two-leg relegation-promotion clashes with Lions. It remains to be seen what shape their squad will be in come late July.
Fixtures:
23 Feb: v Force - Home
9 March: v Sharks - Home
15 March: v Chiefs - Home
23 March: v Crusaders - Away
30 March: v Hurricanes - Away
5 April: v Brumbies - Away
13 April: v Rebels - Away
20 April: v Bulls - Home
27 April: v Cheetahs - Away
4 May: v Waratahs - Home
11 May: v Highlanders - Home
25 May: v Cheetahs - Home
1 June: v Stormers - Away
29 June: v Bulls - Away
6 July: v Stormers - Home
13 July: v Sharks - Away
Comments
Ramage says...
ABasquefan sums up the mess we are inn with this inept decision by the SARFU. John O.Neill may be gone but his clammy hand lingers on and is spread all over this horrible decision. He is hanging round like the proverbial bad smell. The conference system is a very bad joke. Australia benefitted from it last season. The Sharks Bulls and Stormers look like benefitting this season. Oh well NZ cant moan as their weak administrators allowed clammy John O'Neill To ride roughshod over them again. Now the NZ teams will have to rue the day their administrators bent over to accommodate the little emperor. Lets hope that Sanza wake up and ditch this ridiculous conference system.
Posted 11:32 11th February 2013
three6three6 says...
This is a complete load of rubbish..... and it is highly likely that this team will be flogged by everyone that plays them! On the basis that it takes at least 3 seasons to build credibility on the pitch, then a politically motivated experiment of twelve months simply deserves to be binned.
The suggestion that 10 points are on offer to every South African franchise does hold some credence.... and if so, will of course will distort the composition of the play off teams!
Posted 04:54 11th February 2013
letsgoboks says...
Absolutely disgusting. This should not have been allowed.
Once again common sense makes way for utter stupidity. A running theme with the running of south africa in general.
Posted 13:00 10th February 2013
nefari says...
The Blues were pretty easy for NZ sides last year
Posted 10:55 08th February 2013
passtheball says...
Top SA and Aus teams have some "free"points that will help ease one or more of their teams into the finals. Still the match hardened NZ sides, with no easy games at home, will still have the edge at the sharp end unless they have to travel to SA and back - that's the killer for all sides.
Posted 13:41 07th February 2013
Trinats2 says...
Not sure they are so much as newies ?? Sure they are a new formed club but from clubs dating back to pre 1900s !!! when compared to Rebels or the Force.
They have a dream run apart from a few away games, so should do better than the Lions or Cheetahs ever did.
Posted 12:10 07th February 2013
BDAUSSIE says...
Bit of a low blow to the Rebels to suggest they'r a possiblity of beating them. The Rebels beat the Crusaders last year. Its a team littered with internationals. The Kings have Luke Watson, that's it. jesus christ.
Posted 11:13 07th February 2013
scrumpoacher says...
And I thought the ARU made bad decisions...
Posted 08:31 07th February 2013
nefari says...
FINALLY the super rugby previews start!
Posted 05:16 07th February 2013
noord_transvaal says...
I get the feeling mr. Watson might need some more Dutchmen in his team or they will get thrashing after thrashing. I highly doubt the Force and the Rebels will get beaten by a team that did not even qualify for the Currie Cup.
Posted 00:15 07th February 2013
buba says...
Move the Kings to Argentina...
Posted 22:30 06th February 2013
Farlos says...
On the plus side for SA it should guarantee 3 teams in the semi finals with the extra free win against the kings when compared to the NZ and Aus teams.
Posted 20:17 06th February 2013
RodyNL says...
they might surprise a few times, nothing more. first (on paper easiest) match might come to soon as there might not be enough cohesion yet against a team where most of the players have worked with eachother in the past season(s).
therefore it might be some sort of luck for them that they have relatively tough matches after the first one where they will mainly serve as canon fodder...
after these matches, mid-season, there might be something in it for them...
they will end dead last anyhow...Mont-de-Marsan-scenario
Posted 20:09 06th February 2013
jmanngod says...
Just more cannon fodder from the Republic.... SA can't sustain more than 4 competitive teams... why must we be subjected to this rabble?
Posted 18:02 06th February 2013
fozza says...
Can't add anything regarding the SARU's handling of this situation... farcical. I don't expect the kings to be the push over everyone else says they will be, but can't see them winning more than one or two and this will be fueled by the desire to prove people wrong.
One last thing, longest most attritional competition? I haven't checked but I assume the Pro 12 and Aviva are far longer than this competition. most attritional can be argued as the travelling the super fifteen teams have to endure is pretty gruesome but still... Bit of a sweeping statement!
Posted 17:58 06th February 2013
ABasquefan says...
What the SARU and the SA government have done is a complete disgrace for rugby in general and for the SR comp in particular. The govenment forced to introduce a new franchise and the SARU don't let them build a team. The result is that they have watered the competition down.
With the team they have, the Kings are going to lose every single match and they are going to do it conceding a 4 try-bonus point each time. While the saffa teams gonna play twice against them (10 easy points) there gonna be teams, Reds and Blues, which don't play against them and the rest of the kiwi and aussie teams wil play once (5 points).
10 poits was last year's difference btwin the 1st and the 8th, btwin classifying for the finals with home advantage or not classifying. Being the home advantage so important in the SR comp that's to adulterate the comp.
The conference system was already unfair but now is a joke, a very bad joke. And the big saffa teams, Stormers, Sharks and Bulls are going to be favoured (and i'm not saying that this has been made on purpose or that there have been any kind of conspiracy from the SARU). Not only because they have 10 points (or it's like they would have) before playing but also because they are going to sign up many good players (Taute, Cilliers, Jantjes, van der Merve,...) some for just next year but some others for longer. And what we'll have for the next years is a conference with 3 very strong teams and one team (kings or Lions) wich is unable to compete or at least very weakened
Posted 16:24 06th February 2013
melkdave says...
I have to say SARU ,made a total pigs ear of this ,and with the relegation game .Didnt just wreck one team the Lions ,but also wrecked any Kings future aswell.They just cannot expect quality profesional players ,to sign for either team ,when there futures are so uncertain.This situation could go on for years with both teams having only one year at a time in the S15,and thus getting no time to build.
Posted 14:21 06th February 2013
passtheball says...
The Kings will not be crowned this year. Games 2 - 6 look very tough.
Posted 14:18 06th February 2013
BigRugbyBalls says...
Lambs to the slaughter.
Posted 13:55 06th February 2013