Southern Kings name squad for NZ tour

Cape Town - The Southern Kings have selected a strong team for their two week tour to New Zealand.

Head coach Deon Davids said while it was going to be tough going up against two of the strongest teams in the competition - the Crusaders and the Hurricanes - he was looking forward to the tour.

"It's going to be a challenging tour but it is also a great opportunity to grow as a team both on and off the field," he said. "We can use this opportunity to grow together as a team and to focus on some of the areas that still need work," he said.

Davids said this included working on player's concentration for the full 80 minutes of a game and minimising errors, especially in the 10 minutes leading up to half time and 10 minutes after half time.

"We will also need to work on our kicking, and to be more clinical and patient when we have the ball," he said.

The tour group is:

Players

Schalk Ferreira
Jacobie Adriaanse
Sithembiso (Sti) Sithole
Tom Botha
Justin Ackerman
Edgar Marutlule
Martin Bezuidenhout
Martin Ferreira
Steven Sykes
John – Charles Astle
Schalk Oelofse
Chris Cloete
Cyril-John Velleman
Thembelani Bholi
Stephan Willemse
Jacques Engelbrecht
Ntando Kebe
Kevin Luiters
Leighton Eksteen
Elgar Watts
Louis Fouche
Shane Gates
Stefan Watermeyer
Malcolm Jaer
Luzuko Vulindlu
Jurgen Visser
JP Du Plessis

Management

Deon Davids (Head Coach)
Barend Pieterse (Forwards Coach)
Mzwandile Stick (Backline Coach)
Zingi Hela (Team Manager)
Konrad von Hagen (Team Doctor)
Kim Naidoo (Team Physio)
Nadus Nieuwoudt(Biokineticist)
Sydney Goba (Logistics Manager)
Lindsay Weyer (Performance)