Loyal Davids stays committed to Kings
● Southern Kings coach Deon Davids is too busy plugging holes at the porous franchise to concern himself with job security.
His team, perennially on the backfoot in the Pro14, at times punched above their weight, yet there are rumours some higherups at the franchise want Davids’ removal.
Davids, who is contracted at the Kings until the end of next season, accepts in a professional environment the wins column is the one that weighs heaviest. Before the latest round of matches in the Pro14 the Kings had won just two of their 13 matches, ironically both against the Scottish contingent.
“I’m very loyal and very committed here. I’ve learnt so much in the last three years from a personal and coaching perspective. You want to know that you’ve made a difference but it is always important for me to be realistic of what I have learnt and what I am capable of,” said Davids.
Realistic, but no miracle worker
Those who feel the coach should have done better perhaps also have faith in his tendency to turn petrol into lemonade. He’s had to operate with scant resources.
“As a coach you want certain things to be in place so that you can be measured on an equal basis. You want to be consistently challenged in a dynamic environment. Going forward I have to look at the bigger picture.”
From the get-go this season however, he’s been up against it. “We started with 13 players a couple of weeks before the tournament. Over the last three years I never had the opportunity to put a squad together of my own choice. We just build from one year to the next. I don’t want to make excuses but when you start with a backlog like that you are always going to play catch- up.”
The coach’s box is understaffed too. Yesterday’s match against the Cheetahs was only their third with a forwards coach. Until then, Davids had doubled in that capacity.
“I applaud the effort of the staff and the players. We need to focus on the areas that need improving. It is also about doing things with passion. Play rugby for the right reasons. Those are the things we are trying to get our energy from. We never stop believing in ourselves.
“But in terms of structure and experience what we have compared to what the other teams have, there is absolutely no comparison,” noted the coach.
Apart from not having a forwards coach until recently, the Kings have also been afflicted by injuries to their front rankers. It undermined them in an area that demands excellence on the wet fields of Europe.
Davids said it was “an immense problem” having props Pieter Scholtz, Rossouw de Klerk, Martin Dreyer, Vuyo Pupuma, Schalk Ferreira and Justin Forwood absent at various stages of the season.
The coach said the most pressing area that needs to be addressed is improving the quality of the squad. “We also need certain things in terms of our off-field support.
“We have to get the academy going and the university back into the Varsity Cup. We also need to become competitive in the SuperSport Challenge and the Currie Cup and align a blueprint from the top to bottom.”
It sounds like Davids’ job is far from done.