Stormers hope to regain pride

Cape Town - The Stormers will once again take to the field with the aim of restoring lost pride in their Super Rugby match against the Southern Kings at Newlands on Saturday.

Five wins from 12 matches has seen the Stormers languish for the greater part of the season near the bottom of the standings.

Last week the Stormers scrambled a desperate win against the highly-rated Reds, and they need to show as much commitment against the Kings if they wish to notch up rare back-to-back wins.

"We've beaten the Reds but the pride of the jersey is not totally restored yet," said Stormers captain Jean de Villiers.

"That’s a process that we need to proceed with, and we are definitely not going to underestimate the Kings.

"They showed that they can stand their ground in this competition and we will definitely not take this game lightly.

"We felt we made progress last week, but if we lose this game that will all be for nothing and we will be back to square one."

If the Western Cape outfit lose this weekend, a possible promotion/relegation playoff will loom large as the Kings will enjoy a massive psychological boost when the sides play again two rounds later.

"We are not happy with our position on the log and the only way we can improve that is by winning games, and getting the points," said De Villiers.

"What we’ve seen this year is that any team can beat any other team. That’s made it really interesting.

"When you look at our results, we’ve managed to beat the top teams but we've also lost games against teams that we were expected to beat."

The Kings will be without their injured captain, Luke Watson, and centre Andries Strauss will lead the visitors in his absence.