EP Kings head coach, Brent Janse van Rensburg has had to make injury enforced changes to his side for their upcoming match against the Pumas at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth on Friday evening.
Both George and Tim Whitehead picked up injuries in their 25 – 33 loss against the Durbanites. George took a knock to his knee, while Tim picked up a concussion.
The injuries resulted in a resuffle in the backline with experienced centre Ronnie Cooke replacing and taking over the vice-captaincy role from Tim at outside centre, this means JP du Plessis will move to inside centre.
“Ronnie has plenty of experience and we believe we will benefit from his leadership abilities as well,” Janse van Rensburg said.
Carlo Aspeling will get his first start at flyhalf replacing the injured George, which makes way for the versatile Hansie Graaff on the bench. Jacques Engelbrecht also replaces Stefan Willemse on the flank, who moves to the bench.
“Stefan hasn’t been able to take full part in our practices in the early part of the week, so we will start with Jacques and use Stefan on the bench,” Janse van Rensburg said.
The Kings coach confirmed that flyhalves Elgar Watts and Gary van Aswegen were still on the injured list and not available for selection.
Janse van Rensburg is backing his team to make further improvement this week after a fighting performance against the Sharks saw them lose 33-25 in Durban. He acknowledged, though, that they would face a fired-up Pumas outfit.
“We know we need to up for a big challenge against the Pumas, who are a tough, abrasive side and play an attacking game,” Janse van Rensburg said. “We know we had a chance to put away the Sharks on Saturday, but did not take our opportunities and we made it hard for ourselves.
“But there has been improvement and lessons have been learnt, and it is up to us to keep working hard and to keep looking for consistent improvement each week.”
Kick-off is 19:00.
EP Kings: 15 Scott van Breda 14 Siyanda Grey 13 Ronnie Cooke 12 JP du Plessis 11 Luther Obi 10 Carlo Aspeling 9 Enrico Acker 8 Tim Agaba 7 Jacques Engelbrecht 6 Luke Watson (captain) 5 Cornell
Hess 4 Steven Sykes 3 Tom Botha 2 Martin Ferreira 1 Schalk Ferreira
Substitutes: 16 Lizo Gqoboka 17 Edgar Marutlulle 18 Simon Kerrod 19 Stefan Willemse 20 Thembelani Bholi 21 Kevin Luiters 22 Hansie Graaff
Pumas: 15 JW Bell 14 Bernado Botha 13 Jerome Pretorius 12 Stefan Watermeyer (captain) 11 Rosco Spekman 10 JC Roos 9 Faf de Klerk 8 Jason-Colin Fraser 7 Uzair Cassiem 6 Marnus Schoeman 5 Marius Coetzer 4 Rudi Matthee 3 Khwezi Mona 2 Frank Herne 1 Corne Fourie
Substitutes: 16 Francois du Toit 17 De-Jay Terblanche 18 Giant Mtyanda 19 Jaco Bouwer 20 Reynier van Rooyen 21 Justin van Staden 22 Hoffmann Maritz
Tweet
The Kings must really have depth issues if Scott van Breda gets picked again after his performance last weekend. Wow! Pumas by 17…
@pastorshark (Comment 1) : think he just had a totally off day last week as I’ve seen him play way better than that. However still have to agree the Pumas should win just don’t know about your margin as games between these to teams seems to be very close indeed.
@JD (Comment 2) : Ja look…maybe I am just being a bit fascetious. But van Breda had a super poor game on Saturday and with the further injuries I will back a slightly bigger win for the Pumas…
@pastorshark (Comment 3) : just think the Kings would have targeted this as a possible game to win and will go out all guns blazing so could be close.
@JD (Comment 4) : Missing the two Whiteheads is a blow. Cooke is one of the wasted talents in SA but not having Whitehead, Watts and Van Aswegen avail, does really hurt the Kings.
Does anyone know who the mysterious sponsor is of the Kings?
Seriously who gives a shit
@Kabouter (Comment 5) : good point about the two Whiteheads missing both had good games against the Sharks.
@Orlok Tsubodai (Comment 6) : A lot of us actually.
@Orlok Tsubodai (Comment 6) : if you don’t like it, don’t read it, but please don’t denigrate the time and effort it takes to put these pieces together.
Yeah, very poor game by Scotty last week, but as JD says, he’s a lot better than what we saw last week. Hopefully a better week for him and we can get over the line this time
@Ludz (Comment 10) : good luck!!!!
@JD (Comment 11) : Thanks
Sharks or niks. Sharks for life. GOLD OUT.
Well I can’t see very much on the way of good news for the kings apart from homegrounds. But you never know with their back to the wall maybe some individual moments of brilliance. Maybe they could still salvage something.
@Orlok Tsubodai (Comment 13) : Is that you KSA Shark?
Injury prone Luke Watson is out along with Stefan Willemse, leg injuries. Thembelani Bholi moves up from the bench to replace Watson on the flank, Cameron Lindsay replaces Willemse on the bench and Paul Schoeman comes in for Bholi
Game not televised, keen for updates?
Yup…keep us updated please!
20mins Kings 3 – 6 Pumas
Pumas with most of the possession
Kings driving well, Agaba and Bholi the go to men.
Kings enjoying the territory adv, but not converting into points
30mins Kings 3 – 6 Pumas
Kings almost scored from their own tryline, but disallowed Sykes busy with a bit of off the ball. Great interplay from the outside backs
Score remains 3 – 6 Pumas 10sec remaining
Half-time:
Kings 3 – Penalty: van Breda
Pumas 6 – Penalties: Roos (2)
Scores are level, 6all after 51mins
Pumas back in front 6 – 9 22mins remaining
Kings take the lead through a converted try, 13 – 9 63mins
Pumas with another pen, 13 – 12 Kings, 70mins
@pierre_mackie (Comment 29) : 😯
FFS Kevin Luiters, kicked the ball down field with 5min remaining ended up in a pen to Pumas on Kings 10m.
Final score: Kings 13 – 15 Pumas
@pierre_mackie (Comment 31) : What was the game like…scrappy? Or tight but good?
@pierre_mackie (Comment 31) : The Kings will be disappointed with that result…a win would have done them a world of good…