Davids starts rebuilding phase at Kings – again

DEON Davids’ knack of unearthing new talent and nurturing it will be put to the test when the Southern Kings set sail in unchartered waters in the Pro14 competition next month.

The Kings, who kick off their campaign on September 2, are still busy assembling a squad and are unlikely to even have a friendly match before the opening joust against the Scarlets in Wales.

So far the Kings have signed 23 players, and Kings coach Davids is still busy exploring several new acquisitions ahead of their first game in less than three weeks.

Davids unearthed several gems for the Kings in Super Rugby this year, which resulted in the team winning six matches and earning applause for their entertaining style of play.

“I’m happy to be with the Southern Kings now for the next three years,” said Davids.

“We’ll be starting this process of putting together a squad all over again. We lost a number of our squad from the Super Rugby campaign, and we are busy putting together a new, competitive squad.

“We have identified a large group of players and we have communicated, through our office, to the different unions regarding the players we would like to be here.

“The players that have joined us already are the ones that have been released from their duties at those unions.

There are some players whom we are still awaiting the response of their various unions to release them as soon as possible. “Most of the guys that we have signed now we tried to get for two years so that we do not sit in the same position again – where we will have to scramble for players, and also because Super Rugby is still ongoing while we will be in our offseason preparing for the start of the next season,” the coach said.

“We would have loved to wait for more players coming off-contract at the end of October, but we would have played eight games up until then, so we will have to prepare sufficiently now to ensure that we have a squad that has depth.

I’ll be starting on a clean slate. If a player puts up his hand, I’ll back him.”

All players are being medically screened this week as part of the contracting process. Kings players signed so far: Berton Klaasen, Bobby de Wee, CJ Velleman, Cornal Hendricks, Dries van Schalkwyk, Jacques Nel, Jarryd Sage, Khaya Majola, Giant Mtyanda, Lusanda Badiyana, Masixole Banda, Ntabeni Dukisa, Oliver Zono, Pieter-Steyn de Wet, Rowan Gouws, Sbusiso Sithole, Schalk Ferreira, Stephan Greeff, Tango Balekile, Tienie Burger, Victor Sekekete, Yaw Penxe, Kurt Coleman.