{"id":7798,"date":"2013-07-25T14:34:50","date_gmt":"2013-07-25T14:34:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=7798"},"modified":"2013-07-25T14:34:50","modified_gmt":"2013-07-25T14:34:50","slug":"solomons-eager-to-retain-super-rugby-status-for-kings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=7798","title":{"rendered":"Solomons eager to retain Super Rugby status for Kings"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Franco<\/a>
Franco van der Merwe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Southern Kings director of rugby Alan Solomons has encouraged his team to live up to expectations when they meet the Lions in the first of their Super Rugby promotion\/relegation playoff fixtures on Friday.<\/p>\n

In what is being billed as their biggest challenge of the season, the teams clash at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, in Port Elizabeth, in the first of two legs, with a spot in next year’s Super Rugby competition the prize.<\/p>\n

The second leg will be played in Johannesburg on August 2 and the team with the most log points after the two games will join the remaining four South African franchises in the 2014 competition.<\/p>\n

“This match is critical to both franchises because the consequences of these matches are extremely serious,” Solomons said ahead of the crunch encounter.<\/p>\n

“The winners of these two matches remain in Super Rugby and the side that loses is out of Super Rugby.<\/p>\n

“And you have to understand the consequences of not playing in Super Rugby, because there is no inspiration to retain young players and no top-class rugby for the public, so the consequences are dire.”<\/p>\n

His words were echoed by Lions’ president Kevin de Klerk, who said it had become extremely difficult to retain sponsors and the fans’ interest without the lure of Super Rugby.<\/p>\n

The Kings suffered a blow when regular centre and captain Andries Strauss was ruled out of the promotion series, and was replaced by young Shane Gates, with lock Darron Nell taking over as skipper.<\/p>\n

The Lions will be desperate to regain their Super Rugby status and have named an experienced line-up for the first encounter, with flyhalf Elton Jantjies and lock Franco van der Merwe set to play key roles.<\/p>\n

After seeing the Lions team, Solomons said he was expecting a massive test, but was up to the contest.<\/p>\n

“There is no question that the Lions have got some really good players, but I do not think they are better than we are,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I think this will be a tight affair that will turn on little things.”<\/p>\n

Kings’ centre Ronnie Cooke said the coastal outfit were prepared for a running game from the Lions.<\/p>\n

“Elton brings an x-factor to the game that will suit the Lions because they play a running game,” Cooke said. “He could spark something for them.”<\/p>\n

Both Solomons and Kings’ coach Matt Sexton said there was a feeling of excitement in the camp, but said they were concentrating on the basics and sticking largely to the game plan which had worked for them this season.<\/p>\n

“I think the general feeling we have is excitement, it’s a huge occasion, it’s like a test match or world cup final,” Sexton said.<\/p>\n

“The guys are looking forward to the occasion.”<\/p>\n

The New Zealander said he did not want to give too much away about the game plan.<\/p>\n

“You take each team on their merits and there are opportunities that will be presented during the match and we just need to capitalise on that,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The times where we have been successful on the score board are times where we’ve been very clinical in our approach.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Lions coach Johan Ackermann is well aware of the implications for the two matches.<\/p>\n

“We all know how important it is and the [Lions] players are hungry to get another taste of Super Rugby,” he said. “We can’t hide from the fact that there’s a lot at stake and for both teams there are two important weeks ahead.”<\/p>\n

Ackermann has had to weld a side together after many senior players were loaned out during the season and he is hoping the Lions will not have to face the situation again.<\/p>\n

“It [defeat] will be a huge blow for either union. In their case, having been in just for one year, then fall out and stop the entire process… it will be an enormous setback. – sapa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Southern Kings director of rugby Alan Solomons has encouraged his team to live up to expectations when they meet the Lions in the first of their Super Rugby promotion\/relegation playoff fixtures on Friday. In what is being billed as their biggest challenge of the season, the teams clash at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, in … Continue reading “Solomons eager to retain Super Rugby status for Kings”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,700],"tags":[4303,4305,4304,4306,239,4307,4302,3887,4288,1190,3914],"class_list":["post-7798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-sport-news","tag-alan-solomons","tag-andries-strauss","tag-elton-jantjies","tag-franco-van-der-merwe","tag-johannesburg","tag-kevin-de-klerk","tag-kings","tag-lions","tag-port-elizabeth","tag-rugby","tag-super-rugby"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/franco_vandermerwe.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7798"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7801,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7798\/revisions\/7801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}