Whither the Southern Kings?

This time last year there was uncertainty on whether the Southern Kings would be taking part in Super Rugby, let alone field a remotely competitive unit. Their administrative issues permeated into their performances.

The Southern Kings were the proverbial whipping boys and were considered fortunate if they did not concede a bonus point.

While an American investor by the name of Douglas Schoninger lurks promisingly on the horizon, Kings chief executive officer Charl Crous said they could look ahead to marginally better days in 2017.

He refused to divulge information about the investor, but said their pre-season stability has been a great help.

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"It's helped that we've had a bit of time leading into the new season because it has helped getting some of the off-field stuff into place. Last year everything happened at the last minute.

"Everything that we needed from a compliances, rights holder and administrative point of view was done at the last minute.

"Since the franchise has been looked after in the SA Rugby entity, there haven't been any worries about the payment of players, staff and the involved management. It's more a case of the Eastern Province Rugby Union going forward in terms of being an autonomous union," Crous said.

"In terms of the investor, there's not much I can say because those matters are under the jurisdiction of SA Rugby seeing that I also report to SA Rugby and those matters are strictly handled by them. But any cash injection would be beneficial to the union and the franchise as a whole."

Southern Kings coach Deon Davids could and should be the beneficiary of this new-found stability, but translating that onto the field is a different story.

They did not have the benefit of an off-season and that showed in their lack of defensive structure. The Southern Kings conceded the most points (684), the most tries (95) and the second-heaviest defeat of the tournament (73-27 to the Jaguares).

block_quotes_start It would have been a bit better to have the majority of the core players back from last season block_quotes_end

At times they were game, but they were outplayed and massively outgunned, even by the weaker Jaguares and the Blues, whom they lost to 34-18 at home.

Improving on their two home wins against the Jaguares and the Sunwolves is Davids's priority and the easier Australia conference should bring him a bit of respite. Except for the developing Blues, the New Zealand sides took turns in hammering the Kings.

"You could say that this year we're in a better position because we've had an off-season. We didn't have that last year and the squad we had was confirmed only late. Ideally you'd like to have continuity and have the squad playing in the Currie Cup. It would have been a bit better to have the majority of the core players back from last season," Davids said.

"We've done our best under the circumstances to ensure we'll be ready when we start our campaign against the Jaguares on February 25."