Kings told to clean up act
Irate Isuzu Southern Kings chair and consortium head Loyiso Dotwana has warned his coaches and players he will not tolerate the high number of yellow cards the side have been conceding in the Guinness PRO14.
So far, the Kings have been on the receiving end of 22 yellow cards and two reds and this has left them with a poor disciplinary record in the European League.
Within hours of being elected chair of the Kings, Dotwana made it clear where he stood on the disciplinary front.
“If you look at the stats, the number of yellow cards we have had is the highest in the competition. We cannot allow that to continue,” he said.
“Both the coaching staff and the players must take full responsibility for that.
“We will bring all those accountabilities into the side for next season.”
Dotwana said the franchise was facing three big challenges.
“The first one is obviously to mobilise additional financial resources for the franchise.
“The second one is to strengthen our coaching structure. We do not have depth in our coaching structure.
“The third thing is we have not had a good rub of the green and we have lost a number of games.
“We must strengthen the playing resources and, to be quite frank, improve our discipline on the field.”
The Kings have battled to make headway in the PRO14 and have lost 15 of the 17 games they have played.
On Saturday, they face another tough challenge when they take on top Irish side Ulster in Belfast.
On several occasions this season, Kings head coach Deon Davids has bemoaned his side’s poor discipline.
He was irritated by the showing of his players after they were blanked 43-0 by Munster in February.
They had three players sinbinned, and that left them hamstrung against a Munster side which ran in seven tries.
Kings No 8 Ruaan Lerm was carded in the 35th minute, and later replacements Tertius Kruger and Andisa Ntsila also found themselves in the naughty chair.
“We undid a good performance in the first half by some bad discipline in the second half,” Davids said.
Referees and the Kings have not been seeing eye to eye, and this resulted in a plan of action being devised in 2018 to get both parties on the same page.
Matters reached a head when the Kings had 22 penalties awarded against them against Ulster in Port Elizabeth at the start of the season.
“What we have done was to get in Mark Lawrence and Stuart Berry, who work for SA Rugby, and also with the PRO14 to look at our game and areas that we can improve in,” Davids said.
“So they were here in Port Elizabeth and we had an indepth look at where we need to improve,” he said.
The Kings squad to travel to Ireland is:
Props: Alulutho Tshakweni, Schalk Ferreira DJ Terblanche, Lupumlo Mguca, Pieter Scholtz Hookers: Mike Willemse, Alandre van Rooyen Locks: JC Astle, Dries van Schalkwyk, Stephan Greeff Loose forwards: Bakkies Brown Tienie Burger Andisa Ntsila Ruan Lerm Scrumhalves: Stefan Ungerer Ruan van Rensburg Rudy van Rooyen
Flyhalf: Bader Pretorius Flyhalf/Fullback: Masixole Banda Centres: Tertius Kruger Meli Rokua Harlon Klaasen Wings: Yaw Penxe Bjorn Basson Fullback: Ulrich Beyers