Southern Kings coach Deon Davids has given the team that was tenacious in defeat against the Hurricanes a vote of confidence by making just two changes for Saturday’s Vodacom Super Rugby clash with the Sunwolves at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.
Included in that vote of confidence is loosehead prop Sti Sithole, who retains his place even though the experience of Schalk Ferreira is once again available after returning home early from the tour of New Zealand with an injury. Ferreira will play off the bench, with Davids saying he felt Sithole did well against the Hurricanes, while Ferreira’s impact later in the game could be valuable.
The two changes to the starting team are injury enforced, with Aidon Davids back from his own injury problems in place of Jacques Engelbrecht at No 8, while the concussed Luzuko Vulindlu is replaced by Siyanda Grey. Davids said he was excited about what the latter could bring.
“We are happy to have Siyanda back from injury and he is motivated and ready to go, really excited to be playing again,” said Davids.
There are changes to the bench, with Ferreira coming into the mix to back up Sithole, and utility outside back Jaco van Tonder, who did not tour with the Kings but got game time as a replacement against the Chiefs, replaces the concussed JP du Plessis.
The coach said he’d been pleased with the improvement shown against the Hurricanes, and the challenge for his team against the Sunwolves would be to retain the good bits of last week while still being able to improve in the areas that need it.
“There were a lot of positives in terms of the improvement we made from the Highlanders game to the Hurricanes game, but there are more boxes to tick and we need to keep improving. If we are able to improve in those areas while still being solid in the areas where we were good last week, then I think the score will be in our favour.”
However Davids acknowledged that it was easier said than done, and warned that the Sunwolves are an unpredictable team that are difficult to prepare for.
“You’ve got to expect the unexpected against them, always be prepared for them to throw in something that is a little bit different,” said the coach.
“For us part of the work-ons this week have been further improvements to our defence. We need to still improve our one- on-one tackling as well as work on the system. We need to get better at shutting down opposition space and time.”
He also warned that the discipline would have to improve as well as the out of hand kicking to negate the possible influence of former Cheetahs, Griquas and Sharks fullback Riaan Viljoen.
“If we allow Viljoen time and space when he has the ball we will be in trouble. What we have to do is ensure that our discipline is good, our field kicking is accurate and that when we have the ball we try to keep it as long as possible,” said Davids.
“We succeeded in getting quite a bit of front-foot ball against the Hurricanes, and when you play with front-foot ball the rest of the stuff tends to fall into place. We have worked on getting quicker into position on attack to give our outside backs more chance. If we can carry on with getting go-forward ball from the set pieces we will give our backs more time to make decisions and we will continue to improve our attack.”
Southern Kings team: Jurgen Visser, Siyanda Grey, Stefan Watermeyer, Shane Gates, Malcolm Jaer, Louis Fouche, Ntande Kebe, Aidon Davis, Stefan Willemse, CJ Velleman, JC Astle, Steven Sykes (captain), Jacobie Adriaanse, Edgar Marutlulle, Sti Sithole. Replacements: Martin Ferreira, Schalk Ferreira, Tom Botha, Schalk Oelofse, Chris Cloete, Kevin Luiters, Elgar Watts, Jaco van Tonder.
supersport.com
