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Springbok Steven Kitshoff unveiled at first Ulster training session

Steven Kitshoff of South Africa thanks the support after the Rugby World Cup France 2023 match between England and South Africa at Stade de France on October 21, 2023 in Paris, France. (Photo by Julian Finney - World Rugby/World Rugby via Getty Images)

Three weeks after winning his second World Cup winner’s medal, Steven Kitshoff’s life as an Ulster player has begun.

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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.


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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Tom 1 hour ago
England player ratings vs South Africa | 2024 Autumn Nations Series

That 2019 performance was literally the peak in attacking rugby under Eddie. If you thought that was underwhelming, the rest of it was garbage.


I totally get what you're saying and England don't need or have any God given right to the best coaches in the world... But I actually think the coaches we do have are quite poor and for the richest union in the world, that's not good enough. 


England are competitive for sure but with the talent pool up here and the funds available, we should be in the top 3. At the very least we should be winning six nations titles on a semi-regular basis. If Ireland can, England definitely should.


England's attack coach (Richard Wigglesworth) is Borthwick's mate from his playing days at Saracens, who he brought to Leicester with him when he became coach. Wigglesworth was a 9 who had no running or passing game, but was the best box kicker in the business. He has no credentials to be an attack coach and I've seen nothing to prove otherwise. Aside from Marcus Smith’s individual brilliance, our collective attack has looked very uninspiring.

 

England's defence coach (Joe El-Abd) is Borthwick's housemate from uni, who has never been employed as a defence coach before. He's doing the job part time while he's still the head coach of a team in the second division of French rugby who have an awful defensive record. England's defence has gone from being brutally efficient under Felix Jones to as leaky as a colander almost overnight.


If Borthwick brings in a new attack and defence coach then I'll absolutely get behind him but his current coaches seem to be the product of nepotism. He's brought in people he's comfortable with because he lacks confidence as an international head coach and they aren't good enough for international rugby.


England are competitive because they do some things really well, mostly they front up physically, make a lot of big hits, have a solid kicking game, a good lineout, good maul, Marcus Smith and some solid forwards. A lot of what we do well I would ascribe to Borthwick personally. I don't think he's a bad coach, I think he lacks imagination and is overly risk averse. He needs coaches who will bring a point of difference.


I guess my point is, yes England are competitive, but we’re not aiming for competitive and I honestly don't believe this coaching setup has what it takes to make us any better than competitive.


On the plus side it looks like we have an amazing crop of young players coming through. Some of them who won the u20 world cup played for England A against Australia A on the weekend and looked incredible... Check out the highlights on youtube.

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