Rugby World Cup winner keen to get his ‘own s*** right’ at struggling Ulster

Despite an underwhelming start to his career as an Ulster player, Springbok prop Steven Kitshoff said he has not struggled to settle in in his new surroundings since joining the Northern Irish province after the Rugby World Cup.

Kitshoff was part of the Boks’ triumphant squad which defended their title at the global showpiece in France but has found the going tough since arriving at the Kingspan Stadium-based outfit.

The 31-year-old is yet to taste victory since switching from the Stormers to Ulster after suffering back-to-back losses in the United Rugby Championship against Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh as well as against Bath in their Champions Cup opener last week.

Happy at Ulster despite poor start

“Bar the results, it’s been awesome,” he told the Belfast Telegraph. “All the boys, coaches, support staff have been amazing. They’ve made the transition quite easy. I came in and they were all smiles and very happy to receive me.

“There’s a lot of work to do as a team. The hard work is ahead.

“The honeymoon phase of the move is over. I’m focusing on the rugby now.”

After experiencing the highs of a triumphant World Cup campaign with South Africa, Kitshoff admitted that Ulster’s poor form is a “wake-up call” for him and he feels it is important for him to show improvement in his game as Dan McFarland‘s troops look to end their winless streak at home against Racing 92 on Saturday night.

“It was a bit of a wake-up call, but I didn’t think I’d walk in and we’d just start winning,” he said.

“It doesn’t work like that, you have to put in the hard work.

“It’s definitely a bit of a wake-up call and I need to make sure I get my own s*** right before I expect to perform as I should.

“I haven’t been on par yet.

“Rugby is a weird game and you’ve got a nice seven-day turnaround before the opportunity to play again. For me, it’s making sure I’ve my ducks in a row, try and check all the boxes and trying to put up a massive performance against Racing.

“Just going out there and expecting it to happen isn’t the right mentality. You have to work to make sure you get your stuff right.”

Racing 92 also lost their opening Champions Cup game against Harlequins last weekend, which means both teams can ill afford another defeat at Kingspan Stadium this weekend and Kitshoff is preparing for a difficult challenge against the Top 14 side.

“For me, working with a new group of guys… to be honest, I had to learn 90 per cent of the guys’ names coming into the club,” said the former Stormers skipper.

“I didn’t know how they scrummed, how they’d psyche themselves up for a game, what the procedures are prior to a game.

“Those are all things I had to learn in the first couple of weeks.

“Now, it’s just finding our feet and making sure we put in good performances and tick all the boxes, get the stuff done in the week and pitch in on a Saturday.

‘Big improvement’

“Without going into too much detail, there was a big improvement from Edinburgh to Bath in a one-week jump, and we’ve another opportunity this week to improve even further.

“It’s small things, like when scrums go on too long, we tend to lose our shape a bit.

“It’s focusing on those things, getting them right in training.

“We had a proper session out there today, working on the finer details, being a bit more aggressive.

“The basics of a scrum are all the same throughout all the clubs and unions. I just think certain teams have different tactics, some teams scrum through the loosehead, through the middle, through the tighthead.

“Certain teams, what I felt we did wrong the last couple of games was be a bit too patient, not aggressive enough.

“You find out and you work on it, you find what best suits your style. And you work towards a common goal.

“It’s a process. You don’t become a bad scrum or a good scrum over a weekend, it takes years of practice to nail down the finer details of those dark arts.

“I truly believe we’ll get it right and we’ll fix it.

“There’s still a lot of games to be played this season.”

READ MORE: Jacques Nienaber having ‘big impact’ at Leinster as they shut out La Rochelle in Champions Cup