Kings Flyhalf and top points scorer, Demetri Catrakilis, will miss the second promotion relegation game against the Lions in Johannesburg after sustaining a shoulder injury.
Sport24
Director of Rugby, Alan Solomons, confirmed Catrakilis would be out for between four to six weeks.
“Demetri has sustained a similar injury to that of Steven Sykes earlier this season, which will see him out for between four and six weeks, which means he will not be up for contention for the second promotion relegation game,” said Solomons.
Catrakilis came off in the 57th minute of the game against the MTN Lions on Friday night.
Eina! Welcome back to the S15 Lions if I had to make an educated guess
The Kings have been full value this season.
The Kings are one defeat away from losing a lot more than just their place in Super Rugby.
The Kings are on the verge of a series defeat. It will mark a sad end for such a promising franchise. They will have to wait another 12 months for the next promotion-relegation series, during which time they will face a number of losses and challenges.
Robbie Kempson, the head of the Kings academy, told me earlier this year that the franchise would suffer major losses at the junior level if there was no longer a Super Rugby team to aspire to. The whole franchise, and indeed the whole region, will be profoundly affected should the Kings lose to the Lions this Friday.
The Kings have proved an inspiration for so many this season. They may have finished the league at the foot of the table, but they have broken all kinds of records and are the most successful newcomers in the history of Super Rugby.
If my memory serves me correctly, the losers of this “promotion / relegation” series have to sit out until 2016 when / if there is an expanded competition.
As I said before, its Rugby who are the biggest losers in this whole debacle.
Neither of these 2 teams / franchises will survive financially or keeep any semblence of a squad for 2 years while they sit in the wilderness.
Again I reiterate, it should never have gotten to this stage. SARU neede to address the Kings / EP issue years ago but failed miserably.
While I am very pleased that the Lions won on Friday, I’m deeply saddened at the lack of leadership shown by the SARU Executive in sorting this out to the satisfaction of ALL SOUTH AFRICAN RUGBY PARTIES. It’s time that SARU but the boot in to the Aussie and NZ administrators and forced their hand(s).
SA contribute by far the biggest slice of the pie in SANZAR, but it seems we (as in SARU) have a guilt complex about using it as a negotiating tool. (Or maybe Hoskins, Roux etc are just cr@p negotiators.)
@ Scrumdown:
Problem is Newscorp – I think the ARU with NZ in tow have more clout there than SARU, and Newscorp pays the majority of the TV Rights bill of I’m correct? Please note I’m not saying Hoskins and the rest are not backboneless when it comes to negotiating – they are only good at sucking up to the ANC/government, and that mindset evaporates under real negotiating conditions. For the sake of fair play I’m not sad to see the Watson conspiracy sinking, but the Kings played good rugby and attracted huge crowds compared to the Cheetahs, Lions etc.
@ superBul:
Robbie Kempson should have known that when the Kings entered the competition. He was prepared to go for it, but it didn’t come off.
And that’s that.
But the Kings were good for all money, great entertainment, I enjoyed there style of play. Hope to see them back one day.
Pity about the Greek. I would have loved to have had him play on Sat. Simply because people will say that we played against a weakened Kings team. Win or lose, we will have a lot of negativity about the Lions. While Whitehead is a more than capable replacement, he does not have the same reputation as the Greek. And the Lions do seem to have a problem at 9.
8 @ Lion4ever:
But bear in mind, in 2012 when the Lion had > a full team on the injured list there was F All sympathy. Merely comments about the depth of our squad not being good enough.
This year the Sharks, Stormers and to a lesser extent the Bulls had big injury problems and all ended up LOANING Lions players (many of whom are now injured) and still they battled, and almost to a man, their supporters bitched and moaned about the attrition rate.
Tough sh1t I say. Let the Greek sit in his Dad’s Veggie shop and watch the game there.
If the Kings don’t have enough depth, tough. Such is life.
2012 Lions SR results v 2013 Kings SR performance.
Very close. Same amount of wins. Kings 1 draw. Lions better Bonus Points.
Lions scored more tries AND CONCEDED LESS than the Kings, so just how great was the Kings defence that everyone talks about?
But, as I salways say, you get lies, damn lies, and then statistics.
They can tell you whatever you want them to. For example, statistically every human has one testicle, and 1 breast.
Kings 2013 Lions 2012
Played 16 16
Home 8 8
Away 8 8
Win 3 3
Draw 1 0
Loss 12 13
Home win % 25% 38%
Bye 2 2
Pts For 298 317
Pts Against 564 460
Difference -266 -143
Tries for 27 30
Tries let in 69 52
BP (<7) 2 2
BP (4 Tries) 0 3
Comp Points 24 25
7 @ Pietman:
Kempson commentated on a number of the “Lions Challenge” games. He was more biased than Bobby was on Friday night, but the oke works for the Kings.
Talk about SuperSport being impartial.
Kings performed quite admirably for their FIRST year in the competition with hardly enough time to get sponsors or a decent player bank.
Lions messed it up last how many years now, but have no fear as they will be back next year and for the first time with a decent coach in Ackers
@ Scrumdown:
I agree with your sentiment, but because the bias is so geared towards the Kings, I don’t want their sympathisers to have any excuses.
@ Gena_ZA:
Maybe so, but they were able to get some players with plenty of SR caps. Sykes, Bulbring, Nel, Buys, Maku, Franklin, Cooke etc (half the team) have all played plenty of SR.
12 @ Gena_ZA:
I fail to see where and how admirably the Southern Kings have fared in Super Rugby this year!
They ended 1 Point lower than the Lions did in 2012 on the Combined Log.
They scored far fewer tries and conceded way more tries than the Lions did in 2012.
Their points scored and points conceded against and points difference figures are all wayyyyyyyyyyyy below that of the Lions.
They ended LAST on the Combined Log and last in the SA Conference.
The only thing they were better at than the Lions, is to generate wonderful Spectator figures at their home games… and for that, that hunger of the PE fans, I would be sorry to see them depart the scene. Do not however misconstrue support by supporters of a team for a stellar season by the team itself!
I also feel sad for players who have stepped up to Super Rugby level as if they naturally belonged there… Vleis Engelbrecht, Wimpie van der Walt, Shaun Venter, Demetri Catrakilis, Sergeal Petersen, George Whitehead & maybe SP Marais. I hope these players get loaned / contracted by the remaining Super Rugby Franchises in SA, should the Kings lose at Ellispark and thus have to sit out in 2014.
The Kings started the season on masses of adrenalin and pumped up with passion, wanting to prove all and sundry wrong… and it appeared like they were better initially, but as the ferver wore off, they got worse and worse as the season unfolded…. overall the stats and figures confirm what I say.
They were one-dimentional from the start, with strong defence, no ball to work with and their only weapon the strong maul from the lineout near the opposition tryline.
The Bulls could certainly do with some of those players, not all, in their ranks for 2014… we could make Springboks of some of them too!
@ Scrumdown:
@11
Robbie Kempson, pfffft!
Don’t even let us start on that oke, dumbfk de luxe, ask anyone here at White Shark Cage Adventures in Gansbaai, where he is a director.
Robbie Kempson and Cheeky Watson, hell, we need those two in SA rugby like we need a mop Epsom salts on a Sunday morning coming down.
Wow just read about Alan Solomons being appointed Edinburgh Rugby coach! Sorry if someone has already mentioned this but still outta town so no chance to read all comments. A really good one for Edinburgh well done!
Users Online
Total 33 users including 0 member, 33 guests, 0 bot online
Most users ever online were 3735, on 31 August 2022 @ 6:23 pm
No Counter as from 31 October 2009: 39,397,348 Page Impressions
_