Having gone to great lengths with much research, I have come up with what I would consider a fairly decent State of Origin Southern Kings side.

Stop poaching our players

The Eastern Cape is the home of black rugby in South Africa and produces some of the most talented athletes in the game.

The Eastern Cape unions’ inability to retain its rugby talents has led to its downfall. Instead, each year many of the EP and Border Craven Week players flock to the bigger unions of Natal, Gauteng and the Western Cape. This is a frequent occurrence in an era, when many of the country’s top schoolboy talents look to rugby as a profession after they matriculate.

EP Rugby alone has produced some of the finest Springbok’s in history. Most notably the legendary centre Danie Gerber and former Bok skipper, Hannes Marais. Every time the Boks have won a World Cup there have been Eastern Capers in their ranks.

Some call it the “Windy City”. Some call it South Africa’s toilet. Others say that if they were to turn one city in the entire country into a prison they would do it to Port Elizabeth.

However last year’s FIFA World Cup and the Tri-Nations test on 20 August have proven quite the contrary as PE lived up to its other tag “the Friendly City”.

Great news has spread like wildfire through Eastern Cape rugby circles with the South African Rugby Union’s (SARU) promise that the region will be given a Super Rugby franchise in 2013.

The South African Rugby Union’s (SARU) decision in August to reduce the 2012 Absa Currie Cup format from eight teams to six seems to be bad news for Eastern Province Rugby.

The EP Kings have cleaned up the First Division of Currie Cup rugby and are on their way to defend their 2010 crown. Currently the Kings are unbeaten with six out of six. They have crossed the 60 point mark on three occasions, most recently against the SWD Eagles in George.

Some call it the “Windy City”. Some call it South Africa’s toilet. Others say that if they were to turn one city in the entire country into a prison they would do it to Port Elizabeth.

Ard Matthews…a classic bungi and probably looks like less of a rugby player than P Divvy himself. The poor oke is now at the forefront of the rugby world amidst the whole World Cup hype.

Hello and Welcome to my new blog Rugby Rising.