The hooker, Martin Bezuidenhout, takes over the team’s captaincy with the scrumhalf Ricky Schroeder and hooker, Mike Willemse, being rested for Saturday’s match against the Toyota Free State Cheetahs.

The prop, Pieter Stemmet, who played a bit of his rugby at the Cheetahs before moving to the SWD Eagles, will be making his Premier Division debut when he runs out at tighthead prop.

Among the backs, JC Greyling, who hails from Namibia, is the only person who retains his spot and is joined by Siphumelele Msutwana at inside centre.

Jacques Fick starts are flyhalf while Lungelo Goza comes off the bench to complete the halfback pairing.

Minenhle Mthethwa and Alcino Izaacs take over at left and right wing respectively, while Ganfried May covers fullback.

The Kings are currently at the bottom of the log following three straight defeats and the Peacock blues will be sensing that they can claim their third straight win.

The Kings' coach, the former Free State and Springbok forward, Barend Pieterse, said he expects the home side to field their strongest possible team.

“I have not seen the team for Griquas yet, but I know they will be fielding their strongest team possible against us and will be looking to take five points.

“There was certainly not a lack of effort on the players’ part and the set pieces were sound. The forwards stood their ground to stop the mauls and breaks in defence were mostly due to individual errors, rather than system errors.

“These are things that we can work on and we can fix.”

Wednesday’s match at Griquas Park in Kimberley kicks off at 17:00.

Griquas - 15 AJ Coertzen (captain), 14 Ederies Arendse, 13 JW Jonker, 12 Clinton Swart, 11 Alshaun Bock, 10 Elgar Watts, 9 Rudi van Rooyen, 8 Jason Fraser, 7 Sias Koen, 6 Wendal Wehr, 5 Jono van Rensburg, 4 Wandile Putuma, 3 Stephan Kotzé, 2 AJ le Roux, 1 Steph Roberts.

Replacements - 16 Marius Fourie, 17 Devon Martinus, 18 Steven Meiring, 19 Thabo Mabuza, 20 Renier Botha, 21 André Swarts, 22 Eric Zana.

EP Kings - 15 Ganfried May, 14 Minenhle Mthethwa, 13 JC Greyling, 12 Siphumelele Msutwana, 11 Alcino Izaacs, 10 Lungelo Goza, 9 Jacques Fick, 8 Dirk Grobbelaar, 7 Brandon Brown, 6 Luke van der Smit, 5 Dylan Pieterse, 4 Hannes Huishamen, 3 Pieter Stemmet, 2 Martin Bezuidenhout (captain), 1  Barend Potgieter.

Replacements - 16 Warrick Venter, 17 Caylib Oosthuizen, 18 Etienne Oosthuizen, 19 Cullen Callopy, 20 Vian van der Walt, 21 Pieter-Steyn de Wet, 22 Siviwe Soyizwapi.

Morgan Piek/OFM News