They may not hail from Port Elizabeth, but the Kings have no internationals in their starting XV for the game against the Force on Saturday.
Kenyan Daniel Adongo and New Zealander Hadleigh Parkes find themselves on the bench as the only foreign players in the match-day squad. The other foreign players were not considered due to injury. Nicolas Vergallo is struggling with a leg injury, while his compatriot, Tomas Leonardi with a chest injury and Virgile Lacombe with a back injury.
The Kings recently included all five of their imports in a 35-man squad released to SANZAR, ignoring SARU’s rule which allows only two foreign players, and might get away with it by rotating injuries.
The team includes three Springbok players in Andries Strauss, Bandise Maku and captain Luke Watson, and while expected to struggle given the toughness of the tournament and their lack of depth, they will get no better opportunity than the Force at home to notch up a win.
Kings: 15 SP Marais, 14 Sergeal Petersen, 13 Ronnie Cooke, 12 Andries Strauss, 11 Marcello Sampson, 10 Demetri Catrakilis, 9 Shaun Venter, 8 Luke Watson (captain), 7 Wimpie van der Walt, 6 Cornell du Preez, 5 Steven Sykes, 4 David Bulbring, 3 Kevin Buys, 2 Bandise Maku, 1 Schalk Ferreira.
Bench: 16 Edgar Marutlulle, 17 Jaco Engels, 18 Daniel Adongo, 19 Jacques Engelbrecht , 20 Johan Herbst, 21 George Whitehead, 22 Hadleigh Parkes.
The game kicks off 19:10 on Saturday evening.
Kings will only get headlines for another 2 or 3 weeks. Then everyone will realise there are more important rugby reporting to done.