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Cheeky eyes relegation escape

Cape Town - Kings president Cheeky Watson believes they can avoid the dreaded promotion-relegation games at the end of the Super Rugby season.

The last-placed South African team in this year's Super Rugby competition will play a two-legged tie against the Lions to determine who participates in next year's event.

The Kings currently occupy last spot in the South African conference, having won only three of 11 games so far. However, they only trail the struggling Stormers by six points, and with two games against the injury-hit Capetonians coming up, the Kings are eying an upset.

The Sharks are also not far ahead on 33 points, and have played a match more than the Kings and Stormers.

Watson believes their recent 34-27 victory over the Highlanders could be the catalyst that sends them in the right direction.

"That win over the Highlanders shows the character this team have and which we always knew they had," Watson told the Sport Live website.

"We absolutely can avoid that relegation game. Nothing is out of the window and we have the possibility of hitting the finishing line. The win over the Highlanders helped us tremendously."

The Kings face a tough run-in to the end of the season though, with five South African derbies looming.

Their remaining matches are against Cheetahs (home), Stormers (away), Bulls (away), Stormers (home) and Sharks (away).

The clash against the men from Bloemfontein kicks off at 15:00 on Saturday.
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