Chaos and Court Cases: What It's Like to Cover the Most Turbulent Rugby Side in South Africa
The Southern Kings have staggered from crisis to crisis for years, failing to pay their players last Super Rugby season, and struggling to field a team this year. Kings beat writer Michael Green talks to Don Rowe about covering South Africa’s most turbulent franchise.
Southern Kings fans have seen enough chaos in the last few years to last a lifetime. The Port Elizabeth Super Rugby franchise seems to be constantly teetering on the brink of extinction, with the South African Rugby Union intervening this year to sort out its dire money troubles. Its players are at odds with team management. Fans are still waiting for a winning season. They may be waiting a long time.
For Michael Green, a rugby journo from South African daily Die Burger, Kings dramas are part of daily life. He has chronicled the rise and fall of teams, coaches and administrators in the Eastern Cape, and was present through the now-infamous death and rebirth of the the team’s Super Rugby hopes in 2013 through to the present day.
Green has written on rugby since 2002, eleven years before the Kings played their first Super Rugby season. He’s seen it all, and even been a part of it too. From fist fights to bottlings, racism and institutional rebirth, Green possesses some of the most intimate knowledge of rugby in Port Elizabeth. He talked to me about the turbulent history of South Africa’s newest rugby franchise.
When did you begin covering rugby as a journalist?
I started as a sportswriter in 1987 with a newspaper called Beeld and then Die Transvaler in Pretoria, the headquarters of the Bulls. At that stage I obviously was a junior and had to cover club rugby. When the senior writer was ill or drunk or lazy, I had to help out with the Bulls (then called Northern Transvaal). It was still the amateur era, so we watched the training on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and then would file some story about a player who snapped his ankle or whatever.
In 2002 I moved to Port Elizabeth. At that stage there was no Super Rugby here so I covered Eastern Province rugby. The team was called the EP Mighty Elephants, but they played in the First Division, not the top league, the Currie Cup. Eventually in 2009, the Kings played their first match – against the British and Irish Lions. From there on there were some friendlies and odd games and, in 2013, the Kings entered the Super Rugby tournament.
In 2011, the Kings won the IRB Nations Cup, a six-team round robin with teams like Georgia, Namibia, Romania and more. Tell me about that.
I covered the tournament but only from television – the matches were shown live on TV in South Africa – and via e-mail with coach Alan Solomons. By then the Eastern Province Mighty Elephants had become the Eastern Province Kings. The team that went to Bucharest in Romania was an EP Kings side, but it was called the SA Kings. I remember the rugby as very slow, and I remember Siyanda Grey, one of the Kings’ wings scoring a hat-trick in the match against Georgia. The 2013 Super Rugby season was a mixed-bag, with wins over formidable opponents like the Brumbies and Highlanders as well as an ultimately disappointing relegation at the end of the season.
Can you describe that season? What was the mood on the ground after their first-round victory over the Force? How did things change as the end of season approached?
The atmosphere here in Port Elizabeth was amazing that season. Spectators streamed to the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium. Coach Alan Solomons didn’t have big names in his team and he kept things simple. “Defend! Defend! Defend!”, that was the chant the spectators shouted. In the first match against the Force, things went the Kings’ way, even the bounce of the ball; Sergeal Petersen scored after a lucky bounce of the ball. The team played their hearts out, but the depth in the squad was so-so and they played predictable rugby, so the other teams soon worked them out.
Towards the end of the season talk turned to promotion-relegation matches and some people started to lose self-belief. One thing you must know about the Kings is that they have always been viewed in quite a negative light by other unions and enthusiasts in South Africa. People say ‘Why must the Kings get everything on a silver platter?’ They forget that other unions used to snap up school players from this region by the bucketful when there was just First Division rugby here. Now that the EPRU are in financial trouble, the troubles are starting all over again.
The Kings played two relegation games with the Lions, dropping the first but winning the second. Their total point aggregate was too low, however, and so regardless of the win, they were relegated.
What was that like? How disappointed were the team? The fans? Did anyone know the next two years would require a total rebuild of the team, including the eventual SARU takeover?
A lot of people still blame the referee for one of the Kings’ losses in one of those matches. The loss was devastating. Behind the scenes the administrators agreed that the Kings, the EP Kings, would be promoted to the Currie Cup from the First Division, and for two years they would play there and rebuild for Super Rugby.
This was agreed to on the condition that the Kings give away their promotion-relegation option, and that they would get entry in this years Super Rugby. Unfortunately, the bulk of the Southern Kings players left, and so did the coach Alan Solomons.
The rebuilding phase never got off the ground for a variety of reasons. One was the coaching. Carlos Spencer, who I really liked, but maybe not as head-coach, was made head coach with two other inexperienced helpers, Michael Horak and Shaun Sowerby. That didn’t work out. Then, last year, the EPRU fell into a financial crisis and players weren’t paid. So eventually SA Rugby had to jump in, belatedly, to rescue the Southern Kings franchise. It’s old news now that the Kings are a month behind with their training and that they are still scrambling to build a team.
What was it like to report during a time of serious upheaval? Did you have to be careful what you wrote in order to ensure continued access to the team? How crazy did things really get?
I’m not sure what upheaval you are referring to, there have been so many. Last year with players not getting paid and some handing over a memorandum to Cheeky Watson and the court cases that is going on now, it’s not fun.
I see myself as a rugby writer, and rugby writers have to deal with this kind of unpleasantness. Relations with some administrators, like Watson, are very strained. He refuses to speak to the media now. Obviously the players were afraid to talk to the media because their careers were on the line. We had to dig deep to get the news. Eventually some players broke their silence. Crazy? No, sickening.
How crazy do things get reporting on rugby in Port Elizabeth anyway? What challenges and triumphs do you experience as a reporter that other sports journos might not? What do you have to be aware of on a daily level when reporting on the Kings and rugby in that part of the country?
Before the EP Kings got back into Currie Cup rugby and the Southern Kings into Super Rugby, we still had enough space for local club rugby in the paper. Here in the Eastern Cape, club rugby is real rough stuff. Not just for the players. At one stage the teams weren’t so racially mixed as they are now and we had a lot of fights. Between spectators too. I know the feeling of getting beer bottles being thrown at you and things like that. I have long blond hair, so I’m quite a recognizable figure. When I walked past certain people I was a target because of what I wrote and continue to write.
Rugby reporting in Port Elizabeth has been bizarre most of the time. When I came here from a stable union like the Bulls, I was shocked out of my socks by all the political stuff and back-stabbing that was and still is going on. We have had some interesting individuals as presidents of the EPRU.
I remember one called Willem Stuurman. He wasn’t popular with most of his executive. He used to send me a text message to phone him, as he didn’t have airtime. Once, he asked me to come and give him a lift as his car was broken down. So I picked him up and to my surprise he took me along to the police where he handed over a file. He wanted them to investigate corruption in his own union.
Then there was another president, George Davids. People used to make fun of ‘Uncle George’. They used to take bets of how many times he would mention the word “particular” during a speech. By the time he finished his speeches, some of us were pissing ourselves under the table laughing.
Rugby in this part of the country has been known to be hard. People know that if you go to PE, you get hammered. Our team maybe won’t win the match, but they nearly always win the fight. Obviously times have changed, but a lot of people in this area still look to the past (the 90’s), when we had amazing players like Danie Gerber, or tough guys like Barry Pinnock, Frans Erasmus and Adri Geldenhuys. I have found people are quick to criticize the team and stay away from matches but really most of them aren’t very loyal. One of the reasons is all those years the EP played in the First Division: people stayed away and watched Currie Cup matches on TV and became supporters of other teams like the Bulls and the Sharks.
The Kings have had a rocky start to the season. Where do you see the team heading this year?
It’s a shame, the Kings are really up against it. But they are really trying to do their best. There are a couple of really talented young players, like Shane Gates (centre) and CJ Velleman (flanker). But unfortunately the depth isn’t there, and after the first two matches you could see after 30 minutes the holes open up in their defensive systems.
Obviously, defence is a problem. I can tell you in Deon Davids, Mzwandile Stick and Barend Pieterse they have competent coaches, but they don’t have a full-time defense coach. Jacques Nienaber of the SA Rugby mobi unit [a high-performance think tank of specialist coaches] pops around now and then to help, but he has other things to do as well all around the country.
Maybe they will pull off a surprise here and there.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity
Comments on RugbyPass
Thanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
4 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
4 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
26 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
13 Go to commentsTalking bout Ryan Crotty? Heard Crotty say in a interview once that SBW doesen't care about the team . He went on to say that whenever they lost a big game, SBW would be happy as if nothing happened, according to him someone who cares would look down.. Personally I think Crotty is in the wrong, not for feeling gutted but for expecting others 2 be like him… I have been a bad loser forever as it matters so much to me but good on you SBW for being able to see the bigger picture….
26 Go to commentsThis sounds like a WWE idea so Americans can also get excited about rugby, RUGBY NEEDS A INTERNATIONAL CALENDER .. The rugby Championship and Six Nations can be held at same time, top 3 of six nations and top 3 of Rugby championship (6 nations should include Georgia AND another qualifying country while Fiji, Japan and Samoa/Tonga qualifier should make out 6 Southern teams).. Scrap June internationals and year end tours. Have a Elite top six Cup and the Bottom 6 in a secondary comp….
13 Go to commentsThe rugby championship would be even stronger with Fiji in it… I know it doesen’t fit the long term plans of NZ or Aus but you are robbing a whole nation of being able to see their best players play for Fiji…. Every second player in NZ and AUS teams has Fijian surnames… shame on you!!! World rugby won’t step in either as France and England has now also joined in…. I guess where money is involved it will always be the poor countries missing out….
84 Go to commentsNo surprise there. How hard can it be to pick a ball off the ground and chuck it to a mate? 😂
2 Go to commentsSometimes people just like a moan mate!
4 Go to commentsexcellent idea ! rugby needs this 💪
13 Go to comments9 Brumbies! What a joke! The best performing team in Oz! Ditch Skelton for Swain or Neville. Ryan Lonergan ahead of McDermott any day! Best selection bolter is Toole … amazing player
12 Go to commentsI like this, but ultimately rugby already has enough trophies. Trying to make more games “consequential" might prove to be a fools errand, although this is a less bad idea than some others. Minor quibble with the title of the article; it isn’t very meaningful to say the boks are the unofficial world champions when it would be functionally impossible for the Raeburn trophy not to be held by the world champions. There’s a period of a few months every 4 years when there is no “unofficial” world champion, and the Raeburn trophy is held by the actual world champions.
13 Go to commentsIts a great idea but one that I dont think will have a lot of traction. It will depend on the prestige that they each hold but if you can do that it would be great. When Japan beat the Boks (my team) I was absolutely devestated but I wont deny the great game they played that day. We were outclassed and it was one of the best games of rugby I have seen. Using an idea like this you might just give the the underdog teams more of an opportunity to beat the big teams and I can absolutely see it being a brilliant display of rugby. They beat us because they planned for that game. It was a great moment for Japan. This way we can remove the 4 year wait and give teams something to aim for outside of World Cup years.
13 Go to commentsHi, Dave here. Happy to answer questions 🥰
13 Go to commentsDon’t think that headline is accurate. It’s great to see Aus doing better but I’m not sure they’ve shown much threat to the top of the table. They shouldn’t be inflating wins against the lousy Highlanders and Crusaders either.
3 Go to commentsSuch a shame Roigard and Aumua picked up long term injuries, probably the two form players in the comp. Also, pretty sure Clarke Dermody isn’t their coach. Got it half right though.
3 Go to commentsOh the Aussie media, they never learn. At least Andrew Kellaway is like “Woah, yeah it’s great, but settle down there guys” having endured years of the Aussie media, fans, and often their players getting ahead of themselves only to fall flat on their faces. Have the “We'll win the Bledisloe for sure this year!” headlines started yet? It’s simple to see what’s going on. The Aussie teams are settled, they didn't lose any of their major players overseas. The Crusaders and Chiefs lost key experienced All Blacks, and Razor in the Crusaders case, and clearly neither are anywhere near as strong as last year (The Canes and Blues would probably be 3rd & 4th if they were). The Highlanders are annually average, even more so post-Aaron Smith and a big squad clean out. The two teams at the top? The two nz sides with largely the same settled roster as last year, except Ardie Savea for the Canes. They’ve both got far better coaches now too. If the Aussies are going to win the title, this is the year the kiwi sides will be weakest, so they better take their chance.
3 Go to commentsThe World Cup has to be the gold standard, line in the sand. 113 teams compete for what is the opportunity to make the pool stages, and then the knockout games for the trophy. The concept is sound. This must have been the rationale when the World Cup was created, surely? But I’m all for Looking forward and finding new ways for the SH to dominate the NH into the future. The autumn series needs a change up. Let’s start by having the NH teams come south every odd year for the Autumn/Spring series games?
13 Go to commentsWhat’ll happen when the AI models of the future go back in time and try to destroy the AI models of the past standing in their way of certain victory?
45 Go to comments