Eastern Province Rugby Union president Cheeky Watson is heading to New Zealand with the mission of addressing the Southern Kings touring squad to explain the decision to recall two players because of the foreign player issue which has landed his organisation in hot water with the South African Rugby Union.
According to a release issued from the EP headquarters, Watson hosted a brief press conference as he left Port Elizabeth on Wednesday, and he told journalists that the Kings would be recalling Argentinian Tomas Leonardi and Frenchman Virgile Lacombe from the touring squad. They will be replaced by Edgar Marutlulle and Devin Oosthuizen.
This development comes on the same day that Sanzar chief executive Greg Peters ruled out any possibility of Saru being able to dock points or suspend the Kings for fielding more than the two foreign players stipulated as a maximum in the match against the Chiefs at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium last Friday.
Peters told the Sharksworld website that Saru didn’t have the jurisdiction to take any action that would impact on the competition as a whole, and said that the foreign player ruling was a Saru stipulation, and not one imposed by Sanzar.
“It’s not our laws that have been breached,” said Peters.
It appears from his every public utterance that Watson is incensed at the threat of Saru sanctions against his squad, but he has stuck to the line in a press release he issued on Tuesday that the Kings would be guided by Saru on the matter and would therefore comply with their wishes.
The Kings were in trouble for fielding three overseas players in their match-day squad for the match against the Chiefs, and also for having four overseas players in the touring squad for the four-match away leg of the Vodacom Super Rugby tournament. He said in the Tuesday statement that his organisation had been led to believe that, given the Saru eagerness to have the Kings recruit players from Argentina, players from that country did not qualify as overseas players in the same way that Kenyan Daniel Adongo didn’t.
“I think it’s very clear by the last statement that we gave out, we were led to believe that according to the players that we signed, that technically we only have two foreign players within the system,” said Watson. (Sorry this in NOT convincing at all)
“But, being a provincial member of the South African Rugby Union, which is the governing body, we follow their guidelines on these issues.”
Asked about whether there was bad blood between the union and Saru, Watson said: “It’s all water under the bridge, we have reached the stage in this region where we said that we are going to stop complaining about the late announcement on the 16th of August, in fact about everything, and just focus on getting the job done. It is immaterial if we are disgruntled or upset, we abide by Saru’s decision and will continue our fight between the white lines on the pitch,” he said. (By all means fight it out on the pitch but do not kid yourselves you got your Super 15 spot on merit!!!)
Watson said he hoped the latest developments would galvanise the team even more. (Yes they should be inspired by the cock up made by Watson and co !!)
“We have every confidence in the team and the team knows that they are playing for something far greater than just a rugby game, they know they are playing for the future of rugby in this region, they are playing to leave a legacy for future generations.”
They are still heading for spot 15 on the table. Their promotion was premature. They needed to graduate to Currie Cup rugby and then see if they could go higher - the merit route not the politically connected route. Crusaders will munch them and the queens will disintegrate as the season goes on.
That said one does realise that they have far more support than is given to the Lions team by their pathetic supporters like taipansy. Hahahahahahahaha.
Given this support they may have a future. Still theyshould have done it the proper way and most would have given them their nod..
