Cheetahs have faith that Kings will prosper

AT this most dismal stage in their history the struggling Southern Kings need all the encouragement they can get and they received some from a rival PRO14 coach this week.

After watching his team condemn the Kings to a 12th consecutive defeat, Cheetahs head coach Rory Duncan predicted that better days lay ahead of the beleaguered Port Elizabeth side.

Duncan was speaking after the Cheetahs’ 45-21 win over the Kings at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium to keep their PRO14 playoff berth hopes alive.

The Kings face the Cheetahs again in Bloemfontein today in the second of back-to-back derby clashes.

Duncan has close connections to Port Elizabeth and played for the EP Kings and was head coach at Grey High before moving to the Free State.

No fewer than seven players with Kings connections have lined up for the Cheetahs in PRO14 this season.

In recent times Makazole Mampimpi, Shaun Venter, Paul Schoeman, Charles Marais, Junior Pokomela, Rynier Bernardo and Tom Botha have played for the Kings.

In addition, former Kings Super Rugby assistant coach David Williams is also part of the Cheetahs coaching structure now.

“It was always going to be tough for the Kings to gain momentum, because of them only starting their preparations a little bit later on,” Duncan said.

“The Kings did not have an opportunity to build a team before they started the competition. So I think coach Deon Davids has done well.

“I can remember coming here in the back end of my career in 2010 to play for the Kings. I know it is a fight and it is a fight for the region.

“I know that every single one of these Kings players are doing that and fighting for rugby in the Eastern Cape and the supporters.

“So they must keep going and they will find their straps eventually and break that wall of getting over for that first win. I think there will be some exciting things happening here in Port Elizabeth.

“I think the Kings have been unlucky in a couple of games and they have run a couple of teams relatively close here in Port Elizabeth.”

Duncan said his team had feared walking into an ambush at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium last Saturday.

“Before the game I said the Kings will beat teams and that the Cheetahs must just make sure we are not one of those teams.”

The Cheetahs coach praised his industrious centre, Nico Lee, who scored a hattrick of tries to lead the Free Staters to victory.

“Nico is a special player and he has shown in the past couple of weeks that he is one of South Africa’s top centres. He has come through nicely and he is one of our Academy players.

“I am very excited to have him in the squad after his recent showings.” Thanks to their win, the Cheetahs have remained in contention for a playoff berth.

Asked if he thought his team could go all the way in respect of the PRO14 title in their debut season, Duncan said: “Absolutely. I don’t think any team goes into a competition without thinking of winning it.

“I’m pretty sure that when the Kings went into the competition they had aspirations of winning.

“This win was good for our playoff hopes. We were looking at four points from this game and we got five.”

At the start of the PRO14 season, there had been speculation that the two South African teams could turn to each other for help as the season progressed.

“There will certainly be, in the future, chats between us to discuss what we picked up on the various teams that we played against and we’ll obviously try and help each other out with the experience that we gain,” Duncan said.

“We chat and we have a relationship with the guys who work at the Kings.

“For South African rugby it is important that we do work together.

“But we do not have formal meetings where we get together and set out an agenda.

“It is more like our backline coach David Williams will have a chat to Kings forwards coach Barend Pieterse about sending some info on the overseas teams.

“Through informal channels we do work together,” Duncan said.

The Cheetahs are third in Conference A, with 35 points after 12 outings, and are trailing Glasgow (58 points) and Munster (43 points) in the standings.

After 12 games the Kings are marooned at the bottom of Conference B with only four points from 12 matches.

With so many close ties between the teams, another fierce derby confrontation is anticipated at the Free State Stadium today.