Ferreira leads team of unknowns

Newly appointed captain Schalk Ferreira will lead a team of relatively unknown players, at least at Currie Cup level, when the Eastern Province Kings open their campaign against the Boland Cavaliers in Port Elizabeth on Friday.

The Kings are starting their season late because they have been hard pressed to get a team together after EP Rugby (Pty) Ltd was liquidated last week and it was only because they were bailed out financially by the Port Elizabeth municipality that the Kings will be able to put a team on the field at all. The Kings’ participation in the premier domestic competition was only confirmed late last week.

With the players who played for the Southern Kings in Super Rugby only being contracted for the

Southern hemisphere tournament, many of them have left to play elsewhere, both in South Africa and overseas. Loosehead prop Ferreira is in fact the only member of the starting team for the Boland match who played regularly for the Kings in Super Rugby. And few of the other players will be known to rugby followers outside of the Eastern Cape.

The exception is centre Waylon Murray, who will wear the No 12 jersey against Boland. Hooker Mike Willemse has played for the Stormers and Western Province, with Tazz Fuzani also having played for WP, while Cornell Hess has also played a bit of senior rugby, otherwise the only other names that may be recognised by regular South African rugby watchers are scrumhalf and vice-captain Ricky Schroeder, fullback Siviwe Soyizwapi and let wing Sampie Mastriet.

Former Lions, Stormers and Griquas hooker Martin Bezuidenhout adds a little experience through a place on the bench, and backline reserve Burton Klaasen is another player who has played for WP, but it has not stopped coach Barend Pieterse from referring to his team as a combination of unknowns, something that he feels could be of benefit to EP in the competition.

“I do think it counts in our favour that no-one knows about us,” said Pieterse.

The coach added that the players are still getting to know each other and agreed that assembling a team so close to the start of the Currie Cup season was hardly ideal. But he said that the players were working hard on getting to learn the various plays. He appeared to be taking an “it is what it is” approach.

“We are where we are at the moment and there is no turning back,” he said.

Ferreira, who has also played for EP and is the one survivor from the Southern Kings team that made its Super Rugby debut under Alan Solomons in 2013, says that he is optimistic that the players will make the most of “their opportunity to play in the biggest national competition in South Africa”.

“We are a new squad but this is a blank canvas,” he said.

Courtesy of an agreement struck between the stakeholders, the Kings will be managed by the same company that managed the Southern Kings during the first half of the year.

EP Kings team: Siviwe Soyizwapi, Alcino Isaacs, Johan Tromp, Waylon Murray, Sampie Mastriet, Kobus Marais, Ricky Schroeder, Christiaan de Bruin, Sebastian Ferreira, Vince Jhobo, Cornell Hess, Tazz Fuzani, Vukile Sofisa, Mike Willemse, Schalk Ferreira (captain). Replacements: Martin Bezuidenhout, Justin Forwood, David Antonites, Brandon Brown, Jacques Fick, Burton Klaasen, Lungelo Goza.