Long live the Kings
25 Feb 2013
MARK KEOHANE, in Business Day, writes the Kings turned a night of potential ruin into a night to remember.
They played in black but it was all Grey when it came to the Southern Kings historic and winning Super Rugby debut in Port Elizabeth.
Grey High School, academically and culturally strong, is also Port Elizabeth’s most renowned sporting and rugby institution.
Kings Director of Rugby Alan Solomons was schooled at Grey. Kings captain Luke Watson went to Grey and Saturday night’s two-try wing wonder Sergeal Petersen finished matric at Grey High just three months ago. The past, present and future of the region were all primary to a victory for the Southern and Eastern Cape, for South African rugby and for the country.
This was indeed a victory for the locals made possible by locals. It was a momentous occasion that demanded celebration and the necessary outpouring of emotion.
The Kings, as a squad, are limited in pedigree but not in passion.
The haters of the Kings called the team an embarrassment to South African rugby. This was before kick-off.
Those haters again displayed every quality of a bully and coward and stayed clear of social media forums on Saturday night. They would have taken the Kings 22-10 win against Australia’s Western Force personally. It is their way.
The haters will be back this week with boasts that the Kings won’t win again this season. This distorted thinking will give credence to their vindictiveness.
The haters don’t see the Lions winning 15 from 90 Super Rugby matches and losing 17 in succession as an embarrassment. The haters don’t recall the Bulls winning two out of 22 matches in Heyneke Meyer’s first two years as a Super Rugby coach. The haters don’t remember the Cheetahs, Lions, Sharks, Cats, Stormers and Bulls all taking 50-plus point beatings in the history of the tournament.
Never have so many South Africans done such a disservice to a South African Rugby franchise.
The argument that Super Rugby participation has to be earned is flawed. How did the Rebels and Force earn the right to play in the competition? They were included to grow the game in Australia.
The Sharks (as Natal) were given Currie Cup status in an expanded structure and went onto become the most successful South African province a decade later.
Griquas and the Pumas, as two examples, were given Currie Cup status by way of another expansion from six to eight teams.
The Kings were reluctantly and resentfully officially declared participants in the 2013 Super Rugby season in August 2012, and there was no guarantee beyond one season.
Few players of Super Rugby quality were willing to leave other provinces in South Africa or return from Europe to play for a region in which uncertainty was the only certainty.
It was assumed – among the anti Kings’ contingent – that the shame of defeat in every match would dull enthusiasm for Super Rugby in the region. It was never a consideration the Kings would lead the South African Conference after the first round of matches.
The Kings on a historic night in our rugby played without a jersey sponsor. They were made to feel like paupers.
They were treated like renegades and played like revolutionaries. They turned a night of potential ruin into a night to remember.
Brumbies loose-forward David Pocock tweeted his best wishes to the Southern Kings on Saturday afternoon and wished them all the best.
The Zimbabwean-born captain of the Wallabies, a man of integrity and substance, who has never forgotten his African roots and who once tweeted he never missed an issue of South African Rugby Magazine as a youngster, cared enough to known what the Kings would mean to the future of the game in Southern Africa.
Pocock, in 140 characters, showed more goodwill to the Kings than the National Governing Body has done in the last 140 months.
Cheeky Watson, an activist against apartheid in South Africa, continues to fight apartheid in South African Rugby. He refused and refuses to compromise on the Kings’ presence in a unified South African Rugby landscape.
It makes him unpopular to a cultural minority. So too Solomons, who four years ago committed to a 10 year plan to restore rugby’s respect within the region.
One of the greatest nights in our unified rugby history was also the saddest because it showed – not how far we have come in unity – but just how far we need to go.
All hail the Kings. Long live the Kings.
Respect
526 Comments
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26 Feb 2013, 00:17 am
@victoriabok-494: i know that…at craven week which is pollard’s level sergeal is the current MVP, not jean-luc
26 Feb 2013, 00:18 am
@S_K-499:
Like he couldn’t kep his “Men in Black” team from striking before the semi final?
How many Super trophies has he won?
He’s a doos like Cheeky and vomit
26 Feb 2013, 00:20 am
@S_K-499:
Anyway it’s the Kiwi Se.xton doing all the coaching
26 Feb 2013, 00:21 am
@victoriabok-500:
. Do you have an arsenal of these links on standby,ready to bomb us with as soon as Cheeky’s or the Watson surname is mentioned? 
26 Feb 2013, 00:23 am
@victoriabok-502: hahaha!a keyboard warrior from the wilds of Victoria ,Canada !! Heheheh.
26 Feb 2013, 00:25 am
@S_K-504:
Do you think it’s going to be any different at Loftus?
Unlike you we take the Boks and rugby seriously
26 Feb 2013, 00:28 am
Time to go .listening to the smooth sounds of Emeli Sandé by far better that to engage with a bitter and twisted individual. cheers and goodnight .
26 Feb 2013, 00:28 am
@S_K-505:
> from the wilds of Victoria ,Canada
Wilds?
Enlighten yourself, have a look here
http://www.victoriabcca.com/gallery/flash/flash.php
26 Feb 2013, 00:37 am
@victoriabok-503: lol Solly’s mastermind behind it all, he us the Alex Ferguson of this joint!
The Phil Jackson of this b.itch
Southern Kings Director of rugby Alan
Solomons has finalised his coaching team
which he describes as an “English soccer
management” set-up.
Preparations for the Kings’ debut Super
Rugby season next year have begun in
earnest in Port Elizabeth, with Solomons
heading up a structure which he compared
to the set-up at the Queensland Reds, and
former Crusaders hooker Matt Sexton taking
up the position of head coach.
“It is very similar to the system that the
Queensland Reds have got with Ewan
McKenzie as a Director of coaching, then
Richard Graham underneath him as head
coach,” he told this website.
Solomons explained that while slightly
different to the division of coaching roles at
most Super Rugby franchises, the structure
is favoured by many clubs in the English
Premiership.
“It is similar to what they have got
overseas, Dean Richards did it ages ago
with Leicester and I suppose you have got
the same at Harlequins where Conor O’Shea
is the Director of rugby.
“Mark McCall had the same thing at
Saracens when he was the head coach and
Brendan Venter was the Director of rugby, I
basically see it as an English soccer
management style,” he said.
Sexton will perform the role of head coach
and take charge of the forward pack with
some assistance from Barend Pieterse,
whilst his fellow Kiwi Brad Moar has been
appointed as attack coach with the
experienced Omar Mouneimne taking the
role of defensive specialist.
“Matt [Sexton] will be doing the forwards,
so he is ultimately responsible for the line-
outs, scrums and the mauling, and he will
be assisted in the line-outs by Barend
Pieterse who will also be assisting our
Vodacom Cup side.
“Brad will focus on our team attack and the
backline,” said Solomons.
The Kings boss said that he is looking
forward to working with Mouneimne who
was used by Nick Mallett as defence coach
during his time in Italy.
“Omar Mouneime is the defence and
breakdown coach. He was with Western
Province and the Stormers, he started out
as a collision coach and then developed
from there into a defence coach.
“He joined Nick Mallett in Italy where he
stayed for two or three years and went right
through until the World Cup,” he said.
With his coaching staff in place all that is
left for Solomons is to get down to the
serious business of preparing his squad for
their entry into Super Rugby which he
admits will be a significant challenge.
“There is a lot of hard work going in, we
appreciate that we have got a lot of hard
work ahead of us so we have got to work
very hard,” he said.
26 Feb 2013, 00:39 am
So Keo clearly read the Kings game thread of Saturday/Sunday very well. He clearly found it educational and instructive and now knows the tide has already turned, as any day’s history present day S.A. will reveal(farm-workers in the W.Cap, mineworkers and more in Gauteng region).
So his focus on the haters(“cultural minority”) and the legacy of the E.Cape(“full many a gem of purest ray serene, The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air.) and the hero(sport activism) to millions of non-racial blacks, Cheeky, is in essence dictated to him and because he understands the dynamics of the situation he(Keo) obliges and does not disappoint by backing a winner which is really just non-racial rugby, as the world dictates.
Does he understand that that “cultural minority” is comprised of many English speakers as well as the Afrikaans speakers he seems to allude to?
As recently as late 2007 he(Keo) was a veritable pain in the Watson backside as he cosied up to White, so uncomfortably.
26 Feb 2013, 00:53 am
@David-456:
Are you even aware that G.Rich is barely on the periphery of what is correct and he too will never know.
Do you know that Blacks “can’t hear what you are saying”. All they know is that when they were children they ” had no freedom”.
More correctly, Blacks don’t want to hear what non-blacks are saying.
Blacks don’t want to understand the words that emanate from a culture of the unwanted, the culture of not belonging, the culture of fear, the culture of drugs and alcohol abuse, the culture of guns and thus the culture of playing god to who lives and who dies.
26 Feb 2013, 05:09 am
So where I saw a normal Port Elizabeth crowd(including family) or a genuine S.African crowd to put it in national context, Mr. not-so-Rich, Gavin saw “a multiracial crowd”. And that is part of the problem of all people of his ilk as they pontificate from their ivory towers.
When last, if ever, rich Gavin have you been to a sport’s venue in Langa, Gugulethu or Nyanga as opposed to both Newlands Grounds and C.T.Stadium? Maybe you would see things differently if you did.
What you also missed rich Gavin is that the Kings represent a large non-racial(’50s already) Black, suppressed sport’s region(you call the E.Cape) that generally vote ANC and because of those factors have not been given the more than a decade protective participation in Super rugby that the Lions and the Cheetahs have been given.
Thus every King’s game is a fight for mere survival and will be conducted with the passion, motivation, commitment and more of a hunted animal that merely wants to live another day.
What do you think propelled a mere lad, Humansdorp’s Petersen, over the try line with manly opponents hanging on to him? But every hunt does not end in survival as some of the hunted do succumb.
The Kings are an endangered rugby species in national rugby and all from the national administrators to fellow national opposition regional franchises to the large fraction of a S.African minority want them out of the way.
Rich Gavin you say drive and accelerate rugby development? Yet sentences before you expressed that national administrators do not have their heart in serious “transformation”, so what are you actually advising then? I will strongly put it to you that they sickly seek the exact opposite than develope rugby in that Eastern Cape region.
Those who control rugby in S.A., a “cultural minority” , are the real enemy. They should be exterminated so that the people of the Eastern Cape can continue to shout “Long Live the Kings”.
For how long can those who r e t a r d rugby ignore the faces on the bills of those persistently large, passionate, vociferous, committed crowds?
26 Feb 2013, 05:23 am
@ET.-511: Have you managed to persuade the Native Americans that you are one of them yet, Big Chief Shi.tting Bull? Because you are the “Culture of the Unwanted”s poster boy.
26 Feb 2013, 06:37 am
pedigree doggy poo-61:
Instead of spraying ‘jou pis’ like a .itch on heat and displaying your groupie ‘jagsheid’ to all the globe via the internet, why not address your seriously lacking rugby credibility?
Tell us groupie, what are ” … all the right reasons” you, as a ‘lightie’ growing up in your parentally desired racist environment, supported just racist sports(rugby, cricket) played at racist venues until the present? Have you ever been to Langa Stadium, Vygiekraal, City Park, Green Point Track(not Stadium), Florida Park, UWC, Dan Qeqe Stadium, Adcock Stadium and more where those sports were played too by the fathers of Kleinveld, Carr, De Jong, Philander, Kolisi, Bobo, Duminy, Barnes, Domingo, Peterson( X 3) and millions more?
If not, why not? Is it because of your closeted racist heritage?
Tell us too what are “… all the wrong reasons” that you know just ‘fokkol’ about Kwaru(clubs like Union, St.Cyprians, Spring Rose R.Cs etc.), E.P.R.U( St.Marks, Swans, Wallabies R.Cs etc – A..C’s. home union), Sedru, Tygerberg R.U., W.P. R. Board, City & Suburban R.U., W.P. Country Distr. and a host more?
What do you really know about Gavin, Ronnie ,Valence and Dan Watson(and teammates Peter.Mkata, Temba Ludwaba, Norman Xhoxho, Yeye, Speelman and more)?. If not, why not? Is it that protective, beneficial ‘apartheid’ ivory tower existence that rounded you with a questionable credibility, so well?
What about Jabaar, Fredricks, Majiets(X4), Lefty Adams, Tiffie Barnes, Yacoob Omar, Hardie Dollie and tons more? Have you or you folks seen them play sport? If not why not? I have seen countless of your racists from before and after Dawie Snyman and Hansie Cronje and others. It was shoved down our gullets by radio and tv day after day.
Are you still a “Coloured” woman now? If that has not worked why not claim to be “Indian”? They are so gentle.
And what is so wrong and off-putting that you have not tried to claim to be Venda(like Ramphele) or Zulu or Xhosa(your ‘gatgabba’ would like that)?
Credibility, ‘celeb’ groupie?
What, where, groupie?
26 Feb 2013, 06:43 am
Does he even know the ‘point ‘ that he wants to make as opposed to the ‘point’ that he knows he does not make?
That is what a Stormer defeat does to their miscreants.
Lost in ‘thought ‘ and lost in time.
26 Feb 2013, 08:00 am
Mark Keo
Let’s have the next King article for rugby reasons only please.
They have made their statement on the field by beating the Force.
Luke had a good game and made a big impact while he was on the field.
You will have 20 odd more weeks of them competing so it would be nice if we saw articles hence forward without having to mention the words “struggle”, “anti-King”, “Afrikaners”, “haters”, “Cheeky” and “past”
I doubt you will change the perceptions of the bloggers, but just speaking for myself, the Kings team did that already on Saturday by the way they played and gutsed it out.
They have gained my respect not by talk but by action.
No one can blame you for the “I told you so” article, but bear in mind that if they lose now, and they will, as will all other teams, then you will in all probability be seeing countless ” we told you so” posts heading in your direction.
Keep writing about them, they represent a franchise, but keep it only related to the on field performances and stick to the players standing out, then perhaps there will be less animosity between some bloggers here as well.
26 Feb 2013, 08:50 am
@ET.-512: @ET.-514: EXCELLENT POSTS!!!
I do not begrudge the players and supporters of the Eastern Cape a team to support…
However the Kings, as conceived and permitted by SARU, are a lie…
They are a bantustan team… Like the Bantustans were chunks of land demarcated to show that black South African’s had their “own” land… The Kings are a team formed by SARU to show that black rugby players have their “own” team…
They are both representative of separate development ideology… They are both divisive…
The Kings have come into being as a zero sum game between them & the Lions… The Kings “win” and the Lions “lose”… But the Kings haven’t won yet… Because the SARU baases have done nothing but use the Kings to show an illusion of transformation… To cover up the fact that they have failed at meaningful black rugby development.
I cannot agree more with the rest of your points on rich Gavin and other lying pseudo liberals on their sentiments and observations of a “multiracial” crowd and their nothing but NIMBY (Not in my back yard) support of the Kings because it is the “right thing to do”, coming from whitey liberals, who lets not forget support a party who’s leader branded the same people from the Eastern Cape as “Refugees” in their own country…
I cannot agree more with you exposing these self proclaimed liberals for the lying curs they are…
That is why your two posts are excellent… They expose hypocrisy.
26 Feb 2013, 08:57 am
Notier
26 Feb 2013, 09:07 am
Nortierd keo doesnt care about uniting all rugby supporters in SA. In fact he delights in causing tension. He is now the lapdog of cheeky and the kings. So whenever he gets the chance to say something about the lions and white rugby supporters he takes it. He couldve written an informed article about how the kings showed guts and glory and passion. But instead he chose to call out all the nay sayers. He is a coke sniffing little man. That really doesnt have any genuine rugby knowledge. He is more a politician and hangs around people with knowledge. He then steals their ideas and calls it his own. Pathetic!!! Remember the world cup. He had written us off even before we started. But when we lost(contreversially)his whole angle changed. What a true biggot and embarresment for sa rugby. Mark Keohane shame on u!!!
26 Feb 2013, 09:16 am
LOl. Racist ET and HG in bed together again, like two little Eastern Cape refugees in CT, they turn to each other in times of need.
26 Feb 2013, 09:17 am
@Bigbok-519:
Bigbok
I am not going to even try to prescribe what he should or shouldn’t write in his weekly columns in the press, but when it comes to match reports I would prefer just sticking to the match details.
We all see the same footage and will either agree or disagree with various calls and worth of certain players during the match.
That is fine by me and that is a basis for banter etc.
We know we are not the most gracious losers in the world and will look for every reason under the sun first before coming to the realization that maybe our team didn’t play well enough to deserve to win.
I would just like to see the Kings now being treated as equals when match reports are written as in my opinion, they are now equals as they play against the same opposition as the other 4 SA sides.
26 Feb 2013, 09:40 am
@Bigbok-519: What got me was how he took 18 days to create and publish such a derogatory and biased article about a man who was no longer around to defend himself.
Cheap, cheap shot and smacks of cowardice.
26 Feb 2013, 09:46 am
@Bigbok-519: I agree with at least one statement here… That Keo is a bigot… A bigot like the rest of the lily liberal PC obsessed “enlightened” ones…
They try hard to camoflage their bigotry with “multiracialism” or “multiculturalism”, but for these NIMBY’s their bigotry is nothing if not skin deep…
26 Feb 2013, 10:03 am
Keo is fast to say how wrong we are. Yet he does nothing but bring disrepute to rugby in all forms and levels. Then he defends it by calling it journalism. Yet its only his kaak opinion. What a clown.
26 Feb 2013, 10:11 am
Nortierd i am not a fan of the Kings nor will i ever be. But i totally agree with u. Write a match report instead of propaganda. And i hope you enjoy your teams debut season.
26 Feb 2013, 10:16 am
@Bigbok-525:
Bigbok, I am not a King supporter, I support the Stormers.
I was happy for the true blood Kings supporters on Saturday even though I didn’t call the game correctly.
It was a game that grew on me the longer it went on, the Kings players really showed guts and determination and I liked that.
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