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Kings: No Lions amalgamation!

Cape Town - The Kings have dismissed rumours that their promotion-relegation match against the Lions will be scrapped in favour of a possible amalgamation.

Rumours did the rounds on social media on Tuesday that the Kings were in talks with the Lions about the possibility of perhaps merging.

The two teams are set to square off in two Super Rugby promotion-relegation matches after the Kings were confirmed as the lowest-ranked South African team in this year's competition. The matches are set to take place on July 26 and August 2.

Kings director of rugby, Alan Solomons, was dumbfounded when he heard about the news of possibly merging.

"I know nothing about that. As far as we're concerned, we're playing against the Lions, but at this stage our focus is on Saturday's match against the Stormers at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium," Solomons told Die Burger's website.

Kings president, Cheeky Watson, also vehemently denied the rumours.

"I can declare that I was in absolutely no way involved in talks regarding the promotion-relegation matches with the Lions," he said.

According to Watson, the SA Rugby Union has confirmed that the Kings will host the first promotion-relegation match on July 26.

The (EP Kings') Currie Cup game against Boland has been moved to an earlier time slot of 16:45 and the promotion-relegation match is scheduled to kick off at 19:10," said Watson.

The Kings' clash against the Stormers kicks off at 17:05 on Saturday.

Teams:

Kings:

15. SP Marais, 14. Marcello Sampson, 13. Ronnie Cooke, 12. Andries Strauss (captain), 11. Michael Killian, 10. Demetri Catrakilis, 9. Shaun Venter, 8. Jacques Engelbrecht, 7. Wimpie van der Walt, 6. David Bulbring, 5. Darron Nell, 4. Cornell du Preez, 3. Kevin Buys, 2. Bandise Maku, 1. Schalk Ferreira.

Substitutes: 16. Grant Kemp, 17. Hannes Franklin, 18. Steven Sykes, 19. Devin Oosthuizen, 20. Nicolas Vergallo, 21. George Whitehead, 22. Shane Gates.

Stomers:

TBA
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