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Van Schalkwyk to give Kings inside knowledge

At the official team announcement Kings head coach Deon Davids revealed that Pieter Steyn De Wet would start at flyhalf in place of Kurt Coleman who had suffered an injury to his quadriceps that was likely to keep him out of action for about four weeks.

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On the bench, a fit-again front-rower Rossouw De Klerk – having completed his compulsory concussion protocol – returns at the expense of Petrus Strauss while there's also a call up for Thato "Freddy" Ngoza who replaces Siyabulela Mdaka as loose-forward cover.  

Players still on the comeback trail from injury include lock Jurie Van Vuuren and prop Entienne Swanepoel.

One aspect of the Zebre game that shouldn’t give the Kings too much trouble on Saturday is understanding any communication between the Italian players in their home language. Kings lock Andries Van Schalkwyk recently returned to South Africa after five seasons of playing for the Zebre side in Italy and is fluent in the language. 

"Anything I can use to help my new team overcome my old team I will happily employ," he chuckled

Meanwhile, Davids gave the assurance that there was no chance of the Kings underestimating their Italian opposition this weekend. 

"I thought Zebre played some good rugby against the Cheetahs and would probably feel they could have won that game. We'll have to make sure we are on-song on the day and not have a situation where we play two halves of completely different rugby again. It's time we put together a game of two good quality halves and play eighty-minute rugby," he said.

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Asked about the difficulty that the Kings seemed to have in adapting to some of the refereeing interpretations in Pro14, Southern Kings skipper Michael Willemse acknowledged that this was an area of concern but added that the franchise was in regular communication with referees on the matter and that he felt it was getting better. 

"It will only improve as we go along but we are beginning to understand the different ways they blow the scrum and breakdown areas, for example, and we are trying to adjust accordingly. 

"I felt our scrum, in particular, showed great improvement in this regard during the game against Leinster. This is a very positive group of players who are determined to make an impact on the competition," he said.

Teams:

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Southern Kings: 15 Masixole Banda, 14 Yaw Penxe, 13 Berton Klaasen, 12 Luzuko Vulindlu, 11 Sibusiso Sithole, 10 Pieter-Steyn de Wet,  9 Rudi van Rooyen, 8 Andisa Ntsila, 7 Victor Sekekete, 6 Khaya Majola, 5 Andries van Schalkwyk, 4 Stephen Greeff, 3 Luvuyo Pupuma, 2 Michael Willemse (captain), 1 Schalk Ferreira.

Replacements: 16 Stephan Coetzee, 17 Rossouw de Klerk, 18 Martin Dreyer, 19 Bobby de Wee, 20 Freddy Ngoza, 21 Godlen Masimla, 22 Oliver Zono, 23 Jacques Nel.

Zebre: 15 Matteo Minozzi, 14 Giulio Bisegni, 13 Tommaso Boni, 12 Tommaso Castello (captain), 11 Mattia Bellini, 10 Carlo Canna, 9 Marcello Violi, 8 Renato Giammarioli, 7 Giovanni Licata, 6 Johan Meyer, 5 George Biagi, 4 David Sisi, 3 Roberto Tenga, 2 Oliviero Fabiani, 1 Andrea Lovotti.

Replacements: 16 Sami Panico, 17 Andrea De Marchi, 18 Dario Chistolini, 19 Jacopo Sarto, 20 Derick Minnie, 21 Guglielmo Palazzani, 22 Serafin Bordoli, 23 Ciaran Gaffney.

Date: Saturday, September 23

Venue: Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium

Kick-Off: 19:35 (19.35 Italy time; 17:35 GMT)

Referee: Seán Gallagher (Ireland)

Assistant referees: Andrew Brace (Ireland), Quinton Immelman (South Africa)

TMO: Marius Jonker (South Africa)

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