Lots of fiery pre-game posturing and fighting talk from promoters before the game on Saturday 4 June 2011 created a raft of expectations within the minds of the media and die hard Eastern Province Rugby supporters.
It was only when the Longhair and I arrived at the game and we saw the ‘nowhere near 30 000’ spectators that I sat down and analysed the hype. Essentially Saturday’s game was a practise match for 26 Southern Kings players who had had no game time for 6 weeks and were going off to Bucharest to play in the Nations Cup. We were not going to see any players put their bodies on the line for a one off match. The Contipartners Premier XV side on the other hand were playing in ‘off time’ and for a Barbarians ‘fun type’ game – no series, no ‘see you next week for a bit of revenge’ but just a staged match to keep the names of 48 players hopefully top of the mind of Piet Snor. Did anyone see de Villiers at the game?
Not the greatest of prospects then to build hype around and sell tickets to a ‘rugby public starved of good rugby’. (Note to self for EP Rugby – the EP rugby public may be starved of good rugby but that doesn’t mean that they will support one off matches of this kind.)
But, to the game, dear friend, to the game.
The Kings starting line-up gave good account of themselves and held the Premier XV to 9 – 10 at halftime.
The 1st 20 minutes of the second half was also tight with the Kings teetering on the edge of victory right up until the big boys were substituted with Luke Watson getting his first run in the EP Colours in the last twenty minutes of the game.
Running along the sidelines one picks stuff up and, sorry for you Luke, some guys did resort to a bit of uitjouery (boo’ing) when you came on the field – not nice guys, not nice. Although that may have been in reaction to calls from Luke for two different movements that didn’t work out at all.
Those last twenty minutes were the Kings downfall with the Premier XV piling the points on and racing away from an equal score. This, despite the Kings embarking on a hard hitting series of rucks and mauls, great lineout work and deadly tackling from the decidedly bigger members of the team.
Stand out players for me were Jaques Engelbrecht (always good for a storming run), Marcello Sampson (quick with the ball), SP Marais (accurate with the boot), Shane Gates (the youngster gave as good as he got), Clint Newland (that Desperate Dan jaw and solid thumping of all and sundry scares the wits out of me on the sidelines), Boela Abrahams (that tiny little oke sure can run rings around his opponents).
The King’s scored only one try by prop Clint Newland with SP Marais kicking four penalties.
The Premier XV tries were scored by Gcobani Bobo, Sam Gerber and Cecil Afrika who jinxed and screamed away from all and sundry to score after a superb 75 meter run.
Final Score: Southern Kings: 17 – Premier XV: 27
The Southern Kings left for Bucharest today.
Alan Straton
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