Port Elizabeth - Eastern Province Kings and Western Province are determined to secure their first wins of the season when they clash at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Port Elizabeth on Saturday.
The Kings, whose best result against their Cape counterparts was a draw in 1999, will enter the match with a new-found confidence after testing the Blue Bulls last week in a match in which they scored five tries.
They will, however, have to tighten up their defence as they will face a visiting team with everything to play for after letting themselves down in their first two matches.
Western Province have scored between 34 and 50 points in all but one of their last seven matches against the EP Kings. In their last three matches alone, the Cape side scored a total of 21 tries against them.
John Dobson, the WP coach, feels his charges need to raise their effort levels in PE: “We have challenged the players to raise their effort levels this weekend against what is a tough Eastern Province Kings side.
“We have not been up to standard thus far this season, and that has to change, starting at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Saturday. “It is exciting to see the energy that the new players and those returning from injury have brought on the training pitch, and hopefully, that translates into our performance this weekend,” Dobson said.
EP head coach Barend Pieterse and captain Ricky Schroeder feel WP will be under huge pressure to finally secure a win.
“WP is a big union and a very professional side, and will be coming down to prove a point. We will have our work cut out for us, we're not going to get anything given to us on a silver platter,” said Schroeder.
“They will be under a lot of pressure to secure the win,” said Pieterse.
Eastern Province Kings team: 15 Johann Tromp, 14 Siviwe Soyizwapi, 13 JC Greyling, 12 Burton Klaasen, 11 Sampie Mastriet, 10 Kobus Marais, 9 Ricky Schroeder (captain), 8 Christiaan De Bruin, 7 Etienne Oosthuizen, 6 Vince Jobo, 5 Sebastian Ferreira, 4 Tazz Fuzani, 3 Vukile Sofisa, 2 Mike Willemse, 1 Justin Forwood Replacements: 16 Martin Bezuidenhout, 17 Barend Potgieter, 18 Dylon Pieterse, 19 Luke van der Smit, 20 Brandon Brown, 21 Lungelo Goza, 22 Ganfried May
Western Province team: 15 Cheslin Kolbe, 14 Werner Kok, 13 Huw Jones, 12 Dan du Plessis, 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Brandon Thomson, 9 Jano Vermaak, 8 Sikhumbuzo Notshe, 7 Jurie van Vuuren, 6 Kobus van Dyk, 5 Chris van Zyl (captain), 4 JD Schickerling, 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Scarra Ntubeni, 1 JC Janse van Rensburg Replacements: 16 Neil Rautenbach, 17 Alistair Vermaak, 18 Oli Kebble, 19 Jan de Klerk, 20 Stefan Willemse, 21 Godlen Masimla, 22 Robert du Preez Referee: Lesego Legoete. Assistant Referees: Ben Crouse, Vusi Msibi. TMO: Christie du Preez - African News Agency (ANA)