KINGS: WEEKEND BATTLE RESULTS

This past weekend the EP Kings were involved in 3 important matches as the senior side took on Border (franchise partners) in their final league match and the 2 junior sides (u19 & u21) were also involved in matches to determine their log position.

THE SENIOR SIDE:
The senior team had to not just overcome their rivals (Border) but also the bad weather conditions as the strong winds played a factor during the match.  The Kings however coming from the windy city were able to come out as the victors as they beat the Bulldogs 38 points to 20 in East London.

After the other results of the weekend the final log is as follow:
Pos Team P Pts
1 Pumas.....................14.............66
2 EP Kings..................14............51
3 Leopards..................14............44
4 SWD Eagles.............14............41
5 Boland Kavaliers......14............32
6 Griffons ...................14............27
7 Border Bulldogs.......14............25
8 Falcons.....................14............18

This means that the four teams qualifying for the semi finals are Pumas, Kings, Leopards & Eagles with position 1 (pumas) taking on position 4 (Eagles) in Nelspruit and poition 2 (kings) taking on position 3 (Leopards) in Port Elizabeth.  With rumours of the Curriecup expanding it seems as if the Kings and the Pumas will be the two teams promoted to the expanded (8team) competition next year.

Preliminary Semi final fixtures (Div1) - Friday, 04 October 2013
14:00 - Pumas vs SWD Eagles , Nelspruit
16:30 - EP Kings vs Leopards , Port Elizabeth 

THE u21 TEAM:
The u21 team managed to beat the 3rd placed Limpopo Blue Bulls away from home with a score of 33 -37.

Current Log:
Pos Team P Pts
1 EP Kings....................7......35
2 Boland........................7.....30
3 Limpopo Blue Bulls...7......28
4 Griquas.......................7......17
5 Griffons.......................7.....15
6 Valke...........................7.....13
7 Pumas..........................7.....11
8 SWD...........................7.....3 

THE u19 TEAM:
The u19 team managed to beat the struggling Limpopo Blue Bulls away from home with a score of 17-26.

Current Log:
Pos Team P Pts
1 Valke..........................7......34
2 Boland........................7.....25
3 EP Kings....................7......23
4 SWD...........................7......20
5 Griquas........................7.....17
6 Griffons........................7.....17
7 Limpopo Blue Bulls....7.....14
8 Pumas...........................7.....1




This was a good weekend for the EP Kings as they continue on their quest to return top rugby to the province as they managed to get 3 out of 3 this weekend.

THE ROYAL GENE POOL - IS IT DEEP ENOUGH

Is the Southern Kings region capable of producing enough quality players in the future to sustain the franchise?

Having a look at all the players from the Southern Kings region playing rugby all over the country & abroad one starts to realise the amount of talent coming from the region. I have compiled a list of all the players currently playing for other unions who went to school in the SWD, EP & Border regions. Note that the list was compiled from limited information gathered from Wikipedia and could be slightly inaccurate but accurate enough to give a reasonably good idea.  Due to the limited information obtainable from Wikipedia not all players from the smaller unions have biographies and therefor I could not determine where they went to school.

Let us start looking at the players playing Curriecup for one of the major (premier division) sides & players involved in the Vodacom cup for these teams.
BULLS(6):
Bandise Maku, David Bulbring, JJ Engelbrecht, Bjorn Basson, Akona Ndungane, Grant Hattingh,
Dont know if I can claim Serfontein as he left at 16.
CHEETAHS(3):
Phillip van der Waldt, Caylib Oosthuizen, Davon Raubenheimer
GRIQUAS(10):
Dalton Davis, Rocco Jansen, Gouws Prinsloo, Brummer Badenhorst, Simon Westraadt, Ligtoring Landman, Jaco Nepgen, Enrico Acker, Durandt Gerber, Nico Scheepers
LIONS(3): Stephan Greeff, Lionel Mapoe, Lionel Cronje
SHARKS(10):
Rayno Gerber, Lwazi Mvovo, Odwa Ndungane, Keagan Daniel, Tim Whitehead, Marco Wentsel, Tera Mtembu, Sibusiso Sithole, Jaco van Tonder, Allan Dell
STORMERS(3):
Ross Geldenhuys, Siya Kolisi, Scarra Ntubeni

A total of 35 players schooled in the Southern Kings region are currently playing for one of the top 6 (Curriecup) unions, either for their senior sides or the Vodacom cup teams.

Players playing for sides in the 1st division not part of the franchise catchment area:
CAVALIERS(1):
Ntando Kebe
FALCONS(2): Jongi Nokwe, Vincent Gwavu
GRIFFONS(2):
Ashwin Scott, Norman Nelson
LEOPARDS(2): Jaco Grobler, MB Lusaseni
PUMAS(9): De-Jay Terblanche, Rudi Mathee, Lubabalo Mtyanda, Boela Serfontein, RW Kember, Doppies le Roux, Carl Bezuidenhout, Wilhelm Loock, Rosco Speckman

A total of 16 players schooled in the Southern Kings region are currently playing Curriecup for one of the 1st Division teams.  This list could be longer but due to the limited amount of player profiles available on Wikipedia I could not determine where many of the players were schooled.

Players playing abroad:
Zane Kirchner, Dewaldt Potgieter, Jacques Potgieter, Jano Vermaak, Rory Kockott, Johan Muller, Wesley Dunlop, Ryan Konkovski... to just name a few. For this article not really interested in listing all the players from the Southern Kings region playing abroad.

Players playing for the 7's National team. (players used in 2012/2013 season)
Cecil Africa, Steven Hunt

Coaches from the Eastern Cape region either coaching or involved in rugby in some other way.
Nick Mallet, Alistair Coetzee, Rassie Erasmus, Andy Solomons, Pote Human, Ricardo Loubscher
(Some serious combined brain power & coaching experience in this lot)


This blog was not written to take a shot at the Southern Kings for not developing these players (not that they could do so in the past without an academy or with top class rugby as an incentive) or at the other unions for poaching the players (seeing that it is a professional era).  This blog was merely written to establish whether or not the Southern Kings region are capable of producing players in the future to sustain the franchise.

If you consider the amount of players already playing in the region who were schooled there and the amount of players playing for other unions the Southern Kings region surely have the potential to produce enough quality players to sustain a franchise as long as they are capable of retaining the players, especially with the establishment of a decent academy and junior structure.

As a previous blog of mine (http://brandewijnvancoke.blogspot.com/2013/09/academy-scouting.html) have pointed out the Kings Academy have had a reasonably successful year regarding recruiting youngsters for the academy and if they continue with the good work at junior levels they should be ready come 2016.

ACADEMY SCOUTING

After watching the Craven week this year a few players stood out as players I would like to be retained by the academy.  I only had the Craven Week to monitor the players and I am sure the Academy scouts have been closely monitoring the players for a while now and will probably have a better idea as far as the quality of the players are concerned. And as consistency is a major factor to consider I am sure they will differ in some selections as they have better knowledge regarding the players. Here is a list of the XV players I would like to sign that represented the Kings franchise (SWD, Border & EP) region. I have set it out as a starting XV as I heard somewhere that the Kings Academy look to sign 1 player in each position every year.
(some positions have more than one player as more than one player impressed - I put them in order of preference)

15)Malcolm Jaer (EP)
14)Duhan van der Merwe (SWD)
13)Somilha Jho (BOR)
12)Warrick Gallant (SWD) / Peet Schoeman(EPCD)
11) Lilitha Jonas (BOR)
10) Lungela Gosa (BOR) / Dewaldt Human (SWD) / Jason Vers (EPCD)
9) Remu Malan (SWD) / Jason Baggot (EPCD)
8) Martin Groenewald (EP) / Dian Koen (SWD)
7) Jedwyn Hardy (BOR) / Justin Hollis (BOR)
6) CJ Velleman (EP) / Stuart Stopforth (EPCD|)
5) Tyler Paul (EP)
4) Sintu Manjezi (EPCD) / Elandre vd Merwe (EP)
3) Thabani Mtsi (BOR) / Ronnie Beyl (EPCD)
2) no hooker as none of them really impressed (difficult to judge a hooker at school level)
1) NJ Oosthuizen (EPCD) / Stefan Grundlingh (SWD)

Of this list I think Martin Groenewald has signed with the Bulls as they put up his medical bill when he had a horrific break of his leg.


Of these the players that I have heard rumours about joining the academy are
Malcolm Jaer, Juson Vers, Justin Hollis, CJ Velleman, Tyler Paul, Sintu Manjezi, Jason Reynecke


Other players I heard rumours about joining are
David Murray (17), Them Yase, and found confirmation that Selvyn Davids (outside centre) who impressed during the 2012 Cravenweek (was not eligible for 2013) will also be joining.

If all of the rumours are to be believed a Kings Academy team could look something like this:
(players corresponding with my selection are in bold)
15) Malcolm Jaer
14)
13) Selvyn Davids (rated him highly in the previous craven week so he is also in bold)
12)
11)
10) Jason Vers
9)
8)
7) Justin Hollis
6) CJ Velleman
5) Tyler Paul
4) Sintu Manjezi
3) David Murray (from cambridge high school in border region)
2) Jason Reynecke
1) Them Yase

Players I would really like to see join this group are Duhan van der Merwe, Warrick Gallant & Dian Koen as these 3 players (all from SWD) were really impressive.

Still some gaps to fill but at this stage the team is looking promising and so far I am pretty pleased with the scouting done by the Kings this year, lets hope the gaps that will be filled will correspond with my selection. If this is the case the Kings are truly on the rise. 

SARU - 6 FRANCHISES WILL REQUIRE MORE PLAYERS

SANZAR announced earlier this week that no matter what format super rugby will be in 2016 it will include 6 South African franchises.  As a Kings supporter this has been music to my ears but with more players leaving to play rugby overseas and with the additional franchise (Southern Kings) to join in the Super rugby competition will we have enough players to field 6 competitive teams??

Now with a 6th franchise being a reality SARU should start to plan towards 2016. It was hard enough in the past to keep players in SA but with the new way of thinking applied by Heyneke Meyer that 'if you are the best you will play no matter where you are' -  all the best players are leaving to ply their trade overseas for financially larger contracts. Now they will be rewarded with money for leaving our shores and also still be able to play for the Boks - talk about having your bread buttered on both sides.

The ripple effect of this way of thinking can already be seen as there has recently been a mass exodus of quality and experienced players to Europe and Japan. During this exodus many of the franchises have lost players seriously depleting the quality and depth of our super franchises and the Bulls have probably been hit the hardest. Now we will have to pick one more team (6 and not 5) from a seriously depleting pool of players with a lot less players of quality to choose from in 2016.  It has not only been super rugby players who have been contracted to players overseas but also players from curriecup premier & 1st division level. So not just the top players leaving but probably also their replacements. 

SARU should somehow adapt their way of thinking or the super teams depth will be depleted and the competition will die as the supporters and viewership fade due to a depleted and second rate competition.


The first option that I propose as a possible solution will be to not pick players for the Bok team if they are playing club rugby overseas.  This will hopefully discourage young players from leaving our shores (at least the ones who seriously feel they have the ability to make it).  I also note that many of the players who left signed contracts for more than one year. So we will need to phase in this way of selection. Any player who leaves or signs an overseas contract from now on will not be picked for the Boks. Players already overseas who have signed contracts can still be selected and the amount allowed to be selected will decrease per year till 2016 - hopefuly confincing/forcing some players to return to SA and strengthen our super rugby squads. Allow Heyneke to select 10 overseas based players till the end of this year (2013), 7 in 2014, 4 in 2015 (no one playing overseas will be considered for selection in the world cup, and only 2 players per year from 2016 onwards.  This will hopefully bring the players back and prevent others from leaving.


My 2nd possible solution will be to privatise the teams.
We should get Local Business men to own/buy the franchises and run them like businesses, this will be the only way that we will be able to compete financially with clubs in Europe and Japan. Clubs in Europe are owned privately and I even read somewhere that the 'Ruperts' (who are South African) are major share holders in Saracens in England (not to sure of this fact as it is hear say).  Rugby claims to be professional - our management style needs to catch up. The players might be professional but the teams are still run like amateur or Semi professional clubs.
This raises the question... Why should South African business men go overseas to become shareholders of rugby teams?  Maybe even have the shares of the franchises available on stock markets for Joe-Public to be able to invest money into their franchises (I am sure many supporters would love to own a part of their favorite franchise , even if it is only 0.1%).


So, In my opinion SARU needs to either abandon their way of thinking as far as player selection for the Boks are concerned (dont pick overseas players to give young players an insentive to stay) or they should Privatise the franchises and become more professional like the teams are in Europe and Soccer all around the world.