Kings arrival hall empty as rivals on spending spree
Departures filling up while team looks to reposition itself
While the departures lounge is busy filling up at the Isuzu Southern Kings, the arrivals hall remains ominously empty.
Their Guinness PRO14 rivals have been busy in the transfer market, but the Kings have remained quiet about any prospective new signings.
This may have something to do with the Kings still having to appoint a permanent head coach, who may want to have a say in any new signings.
Former Bok prop Robbi Kempson was appointed as an interim head coach after Deon Davids parted ways with the franchise last year.
Two new signings have been linked to the embattled franchise which won only one of their 13 Guinness PRO14 matches before the league was suspended indefinitely.
Insiders say the Kings are keen to acquire the services of Sharks scrumhalf Cameron Wright and Glasgow Warriors centre Brandon Thompson.
With an eye to the future, the Kings have decided not to renew the contracts of three senior players.
Long-serving pop Schalk Ferreira, 36, scrumhalf Sarel Pretorius, 36, and flyhalf Demetri Catrakilis, 30, are on their way out at the Kings.
Joining them at the exit door are prop Rossouw de Klerk, 30, and loose forward Bakkies Brown, 25.
Earlier it was announced that centre Howard Mnisi would be joining the Cheetahs.
Though the Covid-19 pandemic is keeping players off the training pitch, Kempson is planning for the future.
Thomson, 25, has been playing in Scotland and is an adventurous flyhalf who could give the Kings new attacking dimensions.
Wright is apparently keen on a move away from Durban because of a lack of game time at the Sharks.
If these players end up pulling on a Kings jersey, there is no doubt they will boost the flagging fortunes of the embattled franchise.
There could be several players on the market looking for new clubs, because of the salary cap of R60m which has been imposed.
In addition, top SA Super Rugby teams will only be able to contract 45 players for each season.
The regulations will result in players surplus to requirements looking for new homes as budgets and belts are tightened in SA rugby.
“We have been very busy with recruitment and looking at the various options for the next two years,” Kempson said after lockdown was implemented.
“I have been chatting with agents and keeping up to date with player movements around the globe.”
Apart from the Kings, the PRO14 transfer market has been a hive of activity with numerous comings and goings as teams nail their colours to the mast for next season.
Among the latest big names on the move are Wales internationals Aled Davies, Jonah Holmes and Tyler Morgan.
Scrumhalf Davies, who started against Uruguay at last year’s World Cup in Japan, has left the Ospreys for Heineken Champions Cup kings and Gallagher Premiership holders Saracens.
Three-time capped utility back Holmes has left Leicester Tigers for the Dragons in the latest coup for the WRUowned Gwent region as he attempts to enhance his Test prospects by playing in Wales.
Wales’s new centre star Nick Tompkins is expected to join on a year’s loan deal from Saracens.
It is the players who are coming in who will generate the interest of supporters of the cross-border tournament.
They include SA back Frans Steyn, who last year joined an elite group of players to have lifted the men’s World Cup twice.
The full-back, centre or outside-half is being joined at the Cheetahs by his Montpellier teammate Marcell Muller and Clermont Auvergne’s George Cronje following a triple raid on the French Top 14 by the ambitious SA franchise.
Munster are the other team on the move, recruiting Springbok World Cup winners in centre star Damian de Allende and lock RG Snyman, along with Saracens full-back Matt Gallagher.
It was De Allende’s try which proved crucial in knocking Wales out at the semifinal stage in Japan.