Kings put their faith in the leading man
ACE kicker Lionel Cronje has been given the job of leading the Southern Kings into battle when they face the Lions in a Super Rugby showdown at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium tomorrow (kick-off 3.05pm).
Cronje, who was the vice-captain for the opening four games, takes the place of Schalk Ferreira who has been ruled out of action for three months by a bicep injury.
The cool-headed pivot has been in golden form with the boot and started last week’s game against the Sharks with perfect strike-rate.
In an impressive display of kicking, Cronje slotted all 15 of his shots at posts in the Kings’ opening games against the Jaguares, Sunwolves and Stormers until his finely-tuned radar eventually let him down against the Sharks.
“I am truly privileged to be in this position to take on the captaincy role. I want to thank the Kings for affording me this opportunity,” said Cronje.
“The circumstances, however, given the loss of a quality leader like Schalk, are not ideal. We are privileged to have a group of leaders in the team and therefore the responsibility of playing a leading role does not lie solely with me.
“I look forward to leading the team with our leadership group. We also wish Schalk the best in his recovery.
“The Lions play a very high tempo game with a running style of rugby. The Kings are looking forward to improve in certain areas of our game.
“We want to keep building and improving on what we have displayed in the past couple of weeks,” the captain said.
Head coach Deon Davids said Cronje understood what was expected of him against the Lions.
“I’ve chosen Lionel for this game as captain. As I said to him and the rest of the team, I will do some stock taking after this match,” said Davids.
“Lionel has been around a long time and he understands what is expected of him in Super Rugby. He has been a central part of our leadership group until now.
“From a performance point of view, he has also played some good rugby. It’s a good opportunity for him. It is a natural thing, as vice-captain, to take this position.”
Davids has made three changes to his starting lineup that went down 17-19 to the Sharks in Durban last weekend.
Ferreira’s injury has given an opportunity for a starting berth for the experienced prop Schalk van der Merwe to start.
Hooker Kurt Haupt will also get an opportunity to start this week ahead of Michael Willemse, who started in the number two jersey in the past four matches.
The Kings team is: Malcolm Jaer; Makazole Mapimpi, Berton Klaasen, Waylon Murray, Alshaun Bock; Lionel Cronje (capt), Louis Schreuder; Ruan Lerm, Andisa Ntsila, Chris Cloete, Wilhelm van der Sluys, Irne Herbst, Ross Geldenhuys, Kurt Haupt, Schalk van der Merwe. Reserves: Michael Willemse, Chris Heiberg, Justin Forwood, Tyler Paul, Stefan Willemse, Johan Steyn, Pieterde Wet, Luzuko Vulindlu.