Kings free players for Elephants

Eight Southern Kings PRO14 players are expected to be released to play for the EP Elephants in their SuperSport Rugby Challenge match against Western Province at the Wolfson Stadium in Kwazakhele on Sunday.

EP Rugby Union president Andre Rademan said Kings head coach Deon Davids would help the Elephants prepare for a tough opener against the defending champions.

The team, scheduled to be named today, is expected to be a mixture of Kings, Madibaz and club players.

Though Rademan said eight Kings players would be released, it appears the players have yet to start training with the Elephants.

“No players have been released as we are awaiting medicals. We are probably looking at Thursday,” a Kings spokesman said yesterday.

It will be a tough start for the Elephants, who go into the game without the luxury of a warm-up match.

They had been scheduled to play against the SWD Eagles in a friendly in Plettenberg Bay, but the game was called off at the last minute.

Rademan said his decision to call that game off was because he decided to prioritise the Kings game against Munster in George.

This weekend the Kings have a bye, which has opened the door for players to be released to the Elephants.

“Ryan Felix will be the coach and he will have eight Kings players in his squad,” Rademan said.

“People must realise that this is a union starting from the bottom and I know people want results.

“Results, however, will not come overnight because we are involved in a building process.

“This can be frustrating but we are building to a pinnacle to achieve our goals in three or four years.

“It had been decided that Deon Davids will be in control of all coaches in our structures and will be attending our training sessions and helping out.

“This is the first game as EP Elephants again and our new kit has arrived. This will be a historical day for EP.”

The action at the Wolfson Stadium gets under way with a Gold Cup qualifying game between Progress and Gardens at 10.30am.

Boland Cavaliers will play the Border Bulldogs at 1pm, before EP and WP clash in the main game at 3pm.

Last year, WP were unbeaten in the SuperSport Challenge and are favoured to retain their title.

A total of 67 matches will be played in the competition, including quarterfinals, semifinals and the final.

The tournament will take 13 weeks to complete and ends on July 15.

This is the second season of the SuperSport Rugby Challenge which, the organisers said, is designed to take rugby to the masses, unearth new talent and bridge the performance gap with Super Rugby.

A big crowd is expected for the Western Province game at Wolfson to watch the Elephants start their challenge for honours.

“We will try to get the strongest side on the field to play Western Province,” Rademan said.

“Last year, we did not have money to sign players and had to use club players in a professional competition because we wanted to make the financial turnaround.”