Lions relish hosting last years' finalists says Tshituka

NEWS: The Lions' Emmanuel Tshituka says facing a team like the Stormers, that played two finals back-to-back, is always a huge challenge but it is one the men from Johannesburg relish.

The flank spoke to the media on Tuesday on kicking off their campaign against last years' finalists, the Stormers, at Ellis Park on Saturday.

"It’s been a long season with no rugby, about twelve weeks without playing any rugby. It’s really exciting to get the season going and play against last years’ finalists.

"What the Stormers did last season speaks for itself, going to two finals back to back is quite impressive. The past two seasons they have managed to dominate South African rugby.

"It’s a challenge that all the South African teams, not just us, have to take on. I look forward to playing against them. When we play them, it is always an attractive brand of rugby. As players we just have to stick to our processes and stick to what we have been training throughout this week.

"There is no doubt in my mind that we have planned for them, we will come out successful," Tshituka said.

He referred to their campaign last season when they had a good start, but it soon went pear shaped after that.

"Last season, we had a good start. Where we fell short in the middle of the season, we were struggling to keep the consistency. This season, a good start is always what we want, get out of the blocks running and get as much points as we can .

"The middle of the season last time wasn’t good enough, if we can just polish up on that, we will be in for a good season," he said.

New forwards coach Barend Pieterse said his first week in the fold has been eye opening.

"Speaking to the players and other coaches, they all agree that it has been one of the hardest, toughest pre-seasons they’ve had in quite a while, so I think everyone is just excited to get the games started again," Pieterse said.

He said he cannot compare his previous team, Griquas, with the Lions, as they have different strengths.

"In every team set-up you find yourself in, there are certain strengths from a team. The Lions had a strength last season which the Griquas maybe didn’t have, so obviously I will try and bring my own little flavour to the Lions. And hopefully, whatever we want to improve on from last season, that is all we can hope for.

"I won’t say it is a combination of the two, I think you have to work towards the strengths of the players you have at the moment, and I think there are a lot of strengths here," the coach revealed.

Tshituka added that the side is very confident going into this new URC season.

"We take a lot of confidence going into this season. We had a really good pre-season as a group and more importantly, we managed to keep most of our core group.

"In the previous season, we did struggle with some of our starting players leaving. I think this is the first season in a while that we just get to continue with our core players.

"We can take a lot of confidence from that. The pre-season we had, we as players feel we can take a lot of confidence."

Pieterse reckons the secret to the Lions succes will be to keep building consistency from last season.

"That is going to be vital for us.

"The thing that has impressed me is the workrate of the guys. When I was still an out-sider looking in, you sort of had this mindset about the Lions and where they are now, but the way the guys train, the work they do off-field before training.

"They are in here early, they prehab, they rehab. You can't fault their effort in all the training I have seen. That has impressed me the most. Something I don’t like is the traffic here in Joburg, at the moment that is the only thing I dislike," he joked.