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From the Shark Tank to the Throne Room

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In Durban the home of the Sharks is the Shark Tank, in Port Elizabeth the home of the Kings is the Throne Room – a place for meting out royal justice and full of mighty warriors with the occasional jester!

The Southern Kings are looking forward to a Throne Room full of supporters when they host The Sharks, Vodacom Super Rugby runners-up in 2012, in Port Elizabeth on Saturday evening.

The Sharks, of course, used Port Elizabeth as a secondary base in the late 1990s, and have never lost there. Okay, they only played twice in PE and won both encounters, against the Chiefs in 1998 and the Brumbies in 1999.

It is every Throne Room supporters wish that the Southern Kings’ dream start to Vodacom Super Rugby two Saturdays ago against the Western Force will be repeated when The Sharks, runners up in 2012, arrive in Port Elizabeth this weekend.

It will be a very tough baptism to the harsh world of South African derbies for the Kings, who only have a handful of players in their squad who have experienced the intensity of these encounters before.

One of these is midfielder Andries Strauss, who started his Vodacom Super Rugby career at The Sharks in 2006 and is now the Kings’ vice-captain.

Strauss said the Kings realise they will have to lift their intensity from the Force match if they are going to give The Sharks a run for their money; “As a team we have set ourselves goals, and winning one game doesn’t mean we’ve really achieved anything yet,” said Strauss.

“If we want to win more games in this competition, we are going to have to improve on that performance. There is no better way than to take on a side with a bunch of Springboks and showing the world once again that we can play this game.”

Kings head coach, Matt Sexton, said: “We will definitely be looking at improving our level of ball retention. If you consider that during the Western Force game we made in excess of a hundred tackles in the first half of the game, which, if you have to take those sort of statistics into every game, sooner or later you’re going to run out of petrol, so we want to make sure we retrieve the ball and hold onto it.”

The Sharks started the season very well, with good wins over the Toyota Cheetahs in Bloemfontein and the DHL Stormers in Durban. But John Plumtree, their coach, admitted they were still not 100% happy with all aspects of their game.

“We were not entirely happy with what we did on the weekend in terms of our attack,” said Plumtree.

“In saying that, looking at the Kings, their set-piece and defence stats are right up there at Super Rugby standard. That just shows that they are certainly capable.

“I don’t think the Force expected it and they got it, good on the Kings. If you look at their side, there are a lot of seasoned campaigners, some young guys who are pretty enthusiastic, they put it all together and came up with a good performance.

“I also thought (flyhalf) Demetri Catrakilis was really good, played well and controlled the game and I thought their setpiece functioned really well – their lineouts and scrummaging. I like their fullback, SP Marais, he looked really good and reminded me of an Israel Dagg while they have a solid midfield with Andries Strauss and Ronnie Cooke. They’re a capable side, definitely, they should do alright.”

Apart from Strauss, who played 22 Vodacom Super Rugby matches for The Sharks, the Kings boast another former KZN stalwart in Steven Sykes, who featured in 69 matches at this level for the Durbanites between 2007 and 2012.

Injury has robbed a third former Shark, Luke Watson, who made his Vodacom Super Rugby debut as a fresh-faced 19-year-old way back in 2003, of the opportunity to play against his old team. He will be replaced by another foreign player and ex-Shark, Daniel Adongo on the bench.

The Sharks can be looking forward to the Kings meting out royal justice from the Throne Room.
Remember you heard “Throne Room” first on MyPE – 8 March 2013.
The teams are:

  • Southern Kings: SP Marais, Sergeal Petersen, Ronnie Cooke, Andries Strauss, Marcello Sampson, Demetri Catrakillis, Shaun Venter; Jacques Engelbrecht, Wimpie van der Walt, Cornell du Preez, Steve Sykes, Darron Nell (captain), Kevin Buys, Bandise Maku, Schalk Ferreira. Replacements: Edgar Marutlulle, Jaco Engels, David Bulbring, Daniel Adongo, Nicolas Vergallo, George Whitehead, Hadleigh Parkes.
  • The Sharks: Louis Ludik, JP Pietersen, Paul Jordaan, Frans Steyn (captain), Lwazi Mvovo, Patrick Lambie, Cobus Reinach, Ryan Kankowski, Jean Deysel, Marcell Coetzee, Franco van der Merwe, Anton Bresler, Jannie du Plessis, Craig Burden, Tendai Mtawarira. Replacements: Kyle Cooper, Wiehahn Herbst, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Jacques Botes, Charl McLeod, Meyer Bosman, Odwa Ndungane.
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Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.