Okay sufficient time has passed for me to try and put last night’s Southern Kings defeat by Griqualand West (27-30), in their pre-season warm up at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, in perspective and for me to try and repair my shattered dreams.
So far the Southern Kings have a pretty dismal 2013 record with 3 games played; a win against the Franchise XV in George and two losses – against the Lions last weekend and the Griquas on Wednesday 13 February 2013.
With a background of Watson bashing and derision for any development, the Southern Kings desperately needed to win last night. A win would have restored faith in the pitifully few die hard fans/followers/hopers and resulted in moving one step closer to successfully signing a major sponsor as well as selling a few more tickets for the game against the Western Force on 23 February 2013.
The foreign 2,4 (or was it 6?) player debacle continues to add smoke to a fire lit by our Northern cousins still smarting from losing their hallowed place in Super Rugby for this year. It would be interesting to follow the money trail to establish just why these fires are being stoked. One wonders if the pundits, haters and vocal commentators would back off if it was discovered that the vitriol and obstacles directed at EP Rugby were all orchestrated by people who stand to benefit as a result of good old greed? Whatever happened to pride in rugby and our country? Pull someone down and you pull yourself down. Point one finger and at least three point back at you.
But, lets face it, the Kings performance last night was not ……… satisfactory and it will take a lot of convincing to get people to buy tickets for the home games going forward.
As it stands I can only offer the Southern Kings one piece of advice – make sure you win the toss and choose to start play from LEFT to RIGHT (North to South at the NMB Stadium) as, according to rugby writer Gerhard Burger; “….the teams playing left to right at kickoff win most of the matches.” See – Science or superstition? – for more.
