Lions eager to make URC statement against Stormers — Emmanuel Tshituka

The Lions are eager to put a stop to the Stormers dominance over South African teams in the United Rugby Championship (URC) when the two teams meet in their season opener at Ellis Park on Saturday afternoon (kick-off 4:05pm).

The only South African team to have beaten the Stormers in the URC are the Lions, something they did in Cape Town back in December 2021, with the Stormers having won 12 and drawn one of their next 13 games against SA sides.

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That includes an 11 match winning run, with them managing to do the double over all three SA teams last season, while they have beaten the Bulls in two playoffs, the URC final in their first season and in the quarterfinals last season.

Stormers success

This has played a big part in the Stormers’ success in the competition that has seen them win the inaugural edition and finish runner-up last season.

Despite the odds being stacked against them, Lions loose forward Emmanuel Tshituka believes they have the fire power to upset the odds and stop the Stormers’ roll.

“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,” admitted Tshituka.

“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.”

Big focus

Tshituka claimed that the Lions big focus this season was to be more consistent which would in turn lead to better results and a better season overall for the franchise.

“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,” said Tshituka.

“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.”

One of the things in favour of the Lions this season over previous ones was them being able to hang onto most of their star players in the off season, which will help with continuity and the good team building that they have done.

“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,” explained Tshituka.

“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.”