Kings without Watson for Lions clash

Cape Town - The Eastern Province Kings will travel to Johannesburg to tackle the Golden Lions without skipper Luke Watson.

There was uncertainty in the week whether the game would take place, followoing a troublesome week where it was revealed that the Kings players were not paid for their services last month.

The Kings players had gone on strike and had not trained since Monday, but a team was named late on Thursday which served as confirmation that the match would indeed take place.

Kings coach Brent Janse van Rensburg made 10 changes from the side which lost to the Sharks last week, but no explanation was given as to why so many changes were made.

The absence of skipper Watson is the most notable of those changes, with midfielder Tim Whitehead taking over the captaincy.

The only players who retained their places in the starting XV are prop Lizo Gqoboka, flank Thembelani Bholi, flyhalf Karlo Aspeling, centre Ronnie Cooke and wing Siyanda Grey.

Among the backs, Hansie Graaff will start at fullback in place of Scott van Breda, Whitehead comes in at inside centre ahead of JP du Plessis, Sylvian Mahuza starts at left wing ahead of Luther Obi, while Dwayne Kelly starts at scrumhalf in place of Enrico Acker.

Up front,  Paul Schoeman starts at No 8 ahead of Tim Agaba, Stefan Willemse replaces Watson at flank, Cameron Lindsay and Tazz Fuzani are the locks, with Cornell Hess and Steven Sykes sidelined.

Simon Kerrod replaces Tom Botha at tighthead prop, while Edgar Marutlulle comes in at hooker in place of Martin Ferreira.

Saturday’s clash at Ellis Park kicks off at 19:10.

Teams:

Golden Lions:

15. Andries Coetzee, 14. Ruan Combrinck, 13. Stokkies Hanekom, 12. Howard Mnisi (captain), 11. Anthony Volmink, 10. Jaco van der Walt, 9. Lohan Jacobs, 8. Fabian Booysen, 7. Kwagga Smith, 6. Stephan de Wit, 5. Martin Muller, 4. MB Lusaseni, 3. Julian Redelinghuys, 2. Malcolm Marx, 1. Jacques van Rooyen

Substitutes: 16. Robbie Coetzee, 17. Ruan Dreyer, 18. Lourens Erasmus, 19. Jano Venter, 20. Ricky Schroeder, 21. Marnitz Boshoff, 22. Jacques Nel

EP Kings:

15 Hansie Graaff, 14 Siyanda Grey, 13 Ronnie Cooke, 12 Tim Whitehead (captain), 11 Sylvian Mahuza, 10 Karlo Aspeling, 9 Dwayne Kelly, 8 Paul Schoeman, 7 Stefan Willemse, 6 Thembelani Bholi, 5 Cameron Lindsay, 4 Tazz Fuzani, 3 Simon Kerrod, 2 Edgar Marutlulle, 1 Lizo Gqoboka.

Substitutes: 16 Michael van Vuuren, 17 Basil Short, 18 Cornell Hess, 19 Eital Bredenkamp, 20 Enrico Acker, 21 Elgar Watts, 22 JP du Plessis