Cape Town – Former captain Luke Watson is not among the 20 new signings who will play Super Rugby for the Southern Kings next year.
The Southern Kings’ Super Rugby campaign is finally up and running following months of financial turmoil after the South African Rugby Union announced 20 signings on Sunday to play Super Rugby.
There has been serious upheaval at the Kings over the last three months after players’ salaries were not paid by the Eastern Province Rugby Union (EPRU) following an expected sponsorship deal falling through.
It led to a player group led by scrumhalf Kevin Luiters and centre Ronnie Cooke to draw up a petition demanding that a special meeting be held by the EPRU to determine whether the current executive committee was fit to continue in their positions, and that all outstanding salaries be paid by December 18.
Saru stepped in and took over the running of the Super Rugby franchise team only in the last three weeks, and after naming Deon Davids as the new head coach with a new management team, the national body confirmed the group of 20 players on Sunday who will form part of the Southern Kings squad for next year’s Super Rugby competition.
Davids and his coaching group will be assisted by Saru’s Mobi-Unit which is headed up by Rassie Erasmus.
The rest of the squad is expected to be completed by players who are contracted to Saru through the Springbok Sevens team and the SA Under-20s, and they will be announced in due course.
Saru also announced that EP Kings chief executive Charl Crous has resigned from his post to be the chief operations officer of the new holding company that’s wholly owned by Saru that will run the financial affairs of the Southern Kings franchise.
The group of 20 signings will be paid salaries by the holding company for November and December, but those EP Kings players who didn’t make the squad will still have to wait on the EP Rugby Union to pay them.
The Southern Kings squad is a mix of players with Super Rugby experience such as lock Steven Sykes, flyhalf Elgar Watts and prop Schalk Ferreira, along with youngsters such as 19-year-old scrumhalf James Hall and loose forward Junior Pokomela, who is the same age as Hall.
“There have been a number of obstacles to overcome but we have made considerable progress in the past week. There has been a lot of overheated speculation about all manner of things, but we have not lost sight of our responsibility,” Saru chief executive Jurie Roux said in a statement on Sunday.
“Our only desire has been to rescue the Southern Kings from the parlous state in which they found themselves and put together a
competitive squad to represent the people of the Eastern Cape with pride in Super Rugby.
“A new company has had to be formed to do that, and with the assistance of the South African Rugby Players’ Association (Sarpa), we have signed a number of the Eastern Province Kings whom our rugby department identified as fitting into a Super Rugby squad.
“Our implementation team is in discussions with other unions and players to complete the signing of the squad that we have in mind.”
Southern Kings Signings
Malcolm Jaer (fullback), Siyanda Grey (wing/centre), JP du Plessis
(centre), Stefan Watermeyer (centre), Elgar Watts (flyhalf), Louis
Fouché, Shane Gates (flyhalf), James Hall (scrumhalf), Kevin Luiters
(scrumhalf), Aidon Davis (loose forward), Junior Pokomela (loose
forward), CJ Velleman (loose forward), Stefan Willemse (loose
forward), Thembelani Bholi (loose forward), Cornell Hess (lock),
Steven Sykes (lock), Tyler Paul (lock/flank), Schalk Ferreira (prop),
Tom Botha (prop), Edgar Marutlulle (hooker).