Speaking at an Emirates Lions conference on Tuesday flanker Emmanuel Tshituka said he believes that the Emirates Lions have what it takes to end the DHL Stormers’ dominance over SA rivals when the teams clash in the Vodacom URC on Saturday.
Tshituka said, “What the Stormers did last season speaks for itself, going to two finals back-to-back is quite impressive, and they have managed to dominate South African rugby, but we are looking forward to facing them and their attractive brand of rugby.”
“As players, we know that we must stick to our processes and what we’ve been training throughout the week. I have no doubt that what we have planned for the Stormers will come out and be successful.”
“It’s a challenge that all the South African teams, not just us, have to take on the Stormers. I look forward to playing against them. When we play them, it is always an attractive brand of rugby. There is no doubt in my mind that we have planned for them, we will come out successful,” Tshituka said.
“It’s been one of the hardest and toughest pre-seasons the players have had in quite a while, everyone is excited just to get going again.’’
Tshituka said the Emirates Lions are 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.
“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,” Tshituka said.
