The Southern Kings Walk the Walk
I sat in the post match press conference in Sydney after the less fancied Southern Kings had knocked over the Waratahs in one of the biggest upsets in recent Super Rugby history. Captain of the Kings, Lionel Cronje, made a statement that all in attendance will remember: "This team will win many more games in this competition, I can guarantee that".
I recently had the pleasure of working with the Southern Kings who are the Port Elizabeth based South African Super Rugby team. At the start of the 2017 season you wouldn't have recognised many names, and predictions of a less than average season would have been common. They however, clearly had other ideas and since beating the Waratahs they have gone on to dispatch the Melbourne Rebels and in their last outing they pulled off the win of the competition in beating the might of the Sharks.
The uncertainty around the future of the Kings has been well documented and it is perhaps what helped ignite the boys from PE. The win over the Sharks looks to have been the statement they had in their sights as soon as the news broke that either the Kings or the Cheetahs would depart come seasons end. An opportunity to have the powers that be sit up and take notice of the new boys.
From my desk here in Sydney I watched the marketing campaign from the Kings develop in the lead up to the Sharks match. The call to action was "Fill our Stadium" and by god they did! 22,000 fans came and saw their team achieve what many would have thought the unthinkable - a historic win over one of the worlds long time provincial rugby super powers.
When Lionel Cronje made that statement, it was no throwaway line. He meant it but not everyone in that room believed it. So far he has been proven correct. They are winning games and from what I saw during my time covering the team, they are the real deal. They are very well coached and managed, they have a well organised general in Lionel Cronje. They have speed and power across the park, but most of all they have the belief that this team can do special things.
From a selfish point of view, I'd love to see them back in Australia come finals time. You know where I'll be !
Good luck for the rest of the competition to my friends at the Kings.
I managed to get Deon Davids and Lionel Cronje to smile for the camera at the post match press conference
Chris Cloete was immense, and calls for higher honours have been been actioned with him added to the Springbok training squad
