Springbok Steven Kitshoff unveiled at first Ulster training session
Three weeks after winning his second World Cup winner's medal, Steven Kitshoff's life as an Ulster player has begun.
The South African loosehead prop's long awaited arrival in Belfast became a reality at the weekend over a year after the move was initially announced. And no sooner had he landed than he was out training with his new team at the Kingspan Stadium.
Ulster catalogued the 31-year-old's arrival on Sunday from Cape Town, before sharing a video of him running out a day later to train ahead of a trip to Glasgow on Saturday in the United Rugby Championship.
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The 83-cap prop could make his first Ulster appearance against the Glasgow Warriors, which would be his first outing since leaving the Stade de France pitch on 52 minutes with the Springboks holding a 12-6 lead against the All Blacks. Kitshoff featured in all seven of South Africa's matches in their World Cup winning campaign, as he did in 2019 as well, starting in all three knockout matches. With Glasgow sitting in second place in the URC and Ulster one place behind them, head coach Dan McFarland will surely want the services of a double World Cup winner as he seeks to leapfrog their opponents.
Kitshoff will continue a strong legacy of South Africans representing Ulster, with his fellow World Cup winner Duane Vermeulen being the most recent member of that list. Marcell Coetzee and Ruan Pienaar are two other popular former Springboks in the province.
After his signing was announced last year, Kitshoff said: " It’s my ambition to be part of the squad that takes that next step and secures silverware for the province." Following a strong start to the season, winning four of their first five games, the Springboks' arrival is only going to boost their chances of silverware this season.
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After a fairly simple Pac4, the BFs will find out a lot about themselves in September when they face the rampaging RedRoses at Twickenham in front of a record crowd. After that they will face them again in Canada in WXV1. They also have France to contend with. Will be interesting to see what Australia have to offer with Jo Yapp at the helm.
Go to commentsSuper Rugby Pacific has been better as a spectacle due to the emphasis on speeding the game up and I’d look at taking things a step further. Instead of giving teams 90 seconds to take a conversion, let’s bring that down 60 seconds. You could also look at allowing 45 seconds for a penalty goal. Maybe teams could get 20 seconds instead of 30 to form a scrum before the ref then starts the engagement process. However, this year the most pleasing change is the added competitiveness in the Trans Tasman matches. What does frustrate me is how the rugby media in Australasia allow the the whole ‘‘rugby is boring’’/’’rugby yawnion’’ narrative to take hold from from vindictive league types, the chairman of the ARL commission and News Limited Australia. Stick up for the game and shift the narrative!
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