Watson back to skipper Kings ship
Luke Watson will lead the Southern Kings in their fixture against fellow strugglers the Highlanders in Port Elizabeth on Saturday.
It seems that the change could have been more a forced one with the injury to in-form Jacques Engelbrecht.
Director of Rugby at the Southern Kings, Alan Solomons, was quick to point out that Watson was heading back into form.
"Luke has come through with some positive play and he's back to form, so it's good to have him back," he said.
The Kings will be without flyer Sergeal Petersen who has gone to join the South Africa Under-20 squad, but would also have been unavailable after tearing his hamstring during their 10-72 hammering at the hands of the Waratahs last weekend.
Amongst the forwards, the Kings coaching staff are busy sweating over the fitness of Kevin Buys and this means that they have delayed the announcement of their front row.
"Kevin's back is worrying him and we will make a final decision on the tighthead prop on Thursday morning.
"They [the Highlanders] have a strong scrummaging pack so we want to see what happens with Kevin before a final decision is made," Solomons said.
Watson explained, once again, that it was always going to be a difficult season for his side and a result like last weekends could be detrimental to their team morale but Watson is still confident that his side can hit back after that disappointing result.
"We knew from the beginning of the season that we would be underdogs for every game and last week Goliath won.
"It was not the performance we wanted, but the commitment of the team has been our strongest attribute and we will be giving a big commitment again on Saturday. The Kings will always give 100 percent," Watson said.
Southern Kings: 15 George Whitehead, 14 Marcello Sampson, 13 Ronnie Cooke, 12 Andries Strauss, 11 Siyanda Grey, 10 Demetri Catrakilis, 9 Shaun Venter, 8 Cornell du Preez, 7 Luke Watson (captain), 6 Wimpie van der Walt, 5 David Bulbring, 4 Steven Sykes, 3 AN Other, 2 Bandise Maku,1 Schalk Ferreira.
Replacements: 16 Virgile Lacombe, 17 AN Other, 18 Daniel Adongo, 19 Devin Oosthuizen, 20 Nicolas Vergallo, 21 Shane Gates, 22 SP Marais.
Date: Saturday, May 11
Venue: Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Port Elizabeth
Kick-off: 17.05 (15.05 GMT; 03.05 Sunday, May 12 NZ time)
Referee: Jason Jaftha (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Sindile Mayende (South Africa), Christie du Preez (South Africa)
TMO: Johann Meuwesen (South Africa)
SAPA
