Tag: Free State

Kings v Cheetahs

My programme

After a much needed weekend off last week we were back at the stadium supporting our mighty Kings.

This weekend it was the turn off the Bloemfontein based Cheetahs to visit the shores of our bay. The Cheetahs are a strong outfit, with four or five Springboks on the team but their real strength lies in their squad.

They assembled a team of young players perhaps five years ago, these guys have played together, toured together, know each other well with the result that they are a really good team, no superstars but a good team.

They’re also presently fourth on the super rugby log, no mean feat that, there’s some tough opposition out there but after a stunning tour of Australia and New Zealand (3 wins in 4 matches) they’ve maintained the momentum and are having a good, no a great season.

I also think that our South African coaches study the opposition a lot more closely, the Cheetahs were able to nullify a lot of the tactics that I’ve been watching from my Kings this season (line out drives, rolling mauls, our tearaway loose trio, etc.)

So, how’d we do?

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Rugby Prayer

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“Rugby fans are being asked to pray for the E.P. Kings ahead of their make or break Currie Cup promotion match against the Cheetahs on Friday.

The appeal was made by E.P. Kings rugby boss Anela Pamba as his team bid to pull off rugby’s “fight back of the century” at the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium.” (report here)

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I was thinking of something along these lines…

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A bridge too far

I’m sure that the hoards of avid rugby followers that read these pages will agree with me that the gap between the two tiers of S.A. Currie cup rugby is larger than we first thought.

Although the E.P.Kings went through the season undefeated, (2 draws) and rightfully earned their place in the promotion / relegation playoffs, (home and away) last nights hammering at the hands of the Free State Cheetahs brought us all down to earth with a bang.

Ironically on the left try scorer Andries Strauss has already signed for The Kings for next season.

The score? An overwhelming 53 -14 (8 tries -2) Match report here

Here’s hoping that we don’t have more of the same next year during our first Super Rugby campaign, sure we’ll have a few new signings to strengthen the squad but against full strength outfits from the Crusaders, Reds, Bulls, Sharks et al it could be a very long season!