Captain Cooke leads Kings
The Kings will travel to Cape Town to play face Western Province on Friday, October 9.
Cooke also replaces Tim Whitehead at centre, although he will operate from the outside position, with JP du Plessis moving to inside centre.
There are injury concerns over Stefan Willemse, who replaces Steven Sykes at lock, and wing Luther Obi, but Kings coach Brent Janse van Rensburg said they were fairly confident the pair would be ready for the Friday encounter.
"Both Stefan and Luther have the sort of minor niggles which we feel can clear up in the next 48 hours and that's why we have included them in the squad to help maintain some consistency with selection.
"But we have put Tazz Fuzani [for Willemse] and Siviwe Soyizwapi [for Obi] on standby, and they will be travelling with us in case the players selected are not cleared by the medical staff at a late stage," Janse van Rensburg said.
Acknowledging he was disappointed with the second half performance against the Blue Bulls after they led 20-17 at the break, Janse van Rensburg called for a consistent performance throughout the match against WP.
"We want to end on a high note and I want the team to put in a good performance, to be competitive and to aim for a consistent display for the full 80 minutes. The players owe it to their fans and to themselves to end off strongly," he added.
Eastern Province Kings: 15 Scott van Breda, 14 Sylvian Mahuza, 13 Ronnie Cooke (captain), 12 JP du Plessis, 11 Luther Obi/Siviwe Soyizwapi, 10 Elgar Watts, 9 Enrico Acker, 8 Tim Agaba, 7 Jacques Engelbrecht, 6 Thembelani Bholi, 5 Cornell Hess, 4 Stefan Willemse/Tazz Fuzani, 3 Simon Kerrod, 2 Edgar Marutlulle, 1 Lizo Gqoboka.
Replacements: 16 Martin Ferreira, 17 Schalk Ferreira, 18 Basil Short, 19 David Bulbring, 20 Paul Schoeman, 21 Dwayne Kelly, 22 Karlo Aspeling.
Date: Friday, October 9
Venue: Newlands, Cape Town
Kick-off: 18.00 (16.00 GMT)
Referee: Lesego Legoete
Assistant referees: Jason Jaftha, Stephan Geldenhuys
TMO: Christie du Preez
