Munster’s director of rugby believes it will take time for South African’s to adjust to the new league

On Saturday Munster and Leinster played in very contrasting games in the new Pro 14. Munster were away to Ospreys in what was the province’s toughest challenge this year, while Leinster were the first Irish side to play one of the new South African sides away in the competition at the massive Nelson Mandela Bay stadium in Port Elizabeth.

Both sides won their games but Leinster looked the more comfortable of the two coming away from Port Elizabeth with a bonus point, 31-10, victory. However, the worrying thing about the clash was the lack of fans in attendance in South Africa suggesting that maybe the Pro 14 isn’t as well received there as most thought it would be.

Speaking to Sporting Limerick on Monday, Rassie Erasmus isn’t too worried about the attendances and makes the point of how big the stadiums are compared to most of them in the Pro 14

“I didn’t watch the game. The quick photo where one of my friends actually sent me. Look those are 50 and 60000 seater stadiums so 3000 people looks like 300 sometimes.”

Erasmus makes a fair point seeing as the Nelson Mandela bay stadium holds 46,000 and there was just over 3000 there on Saturday, it might make for bad coverage seeing all of the seats not in use.

The former Cheetahs coach also eludes to the fact at how new and unstable the Kings are as a team, compared to their Pro 14 counterparts who are among the most stable clubs in World Rugby essentially, having been involved since the beginning of the professional era in the mid 90’s. But Erasmus feels that The Kings and their fans will need some time to get used to the league and the new oppositions they will be facing, and when they do, they will hit the ground running.

“As I said always, the Kings are a team that were in super rugby out of super rugby, in currie cup out of currie cup and they’re not a stable team that has settled into a competition.”

I think this is the ideal competition. They normally have wonderful fans but to be honest with you they wouldn’t know pro 12 rugby or pro 14 rugby. They wouldn’t know the players playing in the league because it’s never been televised there. So I believe the moment they get settled and get a win under their belt the fans start recognising players, opposition players who play who play for the scarlets, who play for different teams.”

The Kings really haven’t got going at all this season with three losses out of three so far and zero points to show for it but their next game is against another side who have been struggling in this competition since they joined a few years ago, Zebre. This will be a huge game for both sides seeing as they are favourites to finish last in Conference B.

If The Kings can pick up the four points at home on Saturday, who knows, maybe the Munster coach’s forecast will start to come true and help settle the new boys.