PUT YOURSELF IN his shoes.
A tumultuous, late October night in Stade de France. Yellow cards lighting up the sky and a million things happening at once. And by the end, you are the world champion loosehead prop for the second tournament running.
It wasn’t as if you locked yourself into a tournament bubble for the couple of months though. During it, the property and estate agent websites were scoured for a property around Belfast for the imminent move to Ireland.
Ah, Ireland. The country that had such high hopes. And as they crashed out of the running, the country that adopted Steven Kitshoff as ‘one of their own’ for his likeness to, well, maybe 20% of the male population.
And so he finds himself here, in the narrow railway carriage that is the media centre of the Kingspan Ravenhill Stadium facing the local reporters for the first time.
For ‘The Spicy Plum’ as he was named by a commentator (it stuck), it’s been something of a land. While he was still in World Cup mode, his new side scored wins over Zebre and Bulls, Munster and Lions, with a shock loss to Connacht throw in the middle.
Since then it’s been puzzling. They have found a variety of ways to lose to Glasgow, then Edinburgh at home before a second half collapse that led to a Bath rout on Saturday, 37-14 the final score in the European Champions’ Cup.
With Racing 92 coming to Belfast on Saturday night, they won’t say it, but there’s the faint scent of dread among Ulster that a lot of their season could slip through their fingers.
“Bar the results, it’s been awesome,” smiles Kitshoff of the welcome to his new home.
“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 focussing on the rugby now.”
And this weekend he comes up against old friends in the form of Sprinboks captain Siya Kolisi and Trevor Nyakane who will be in Racing 92 colours.
At the La Défense Arena last weekend, it took an 85th minute drop goal to produce a shock win for Harlequins over the Parisians. Kitshoff was gripped by a mad game that had a little of everything. His wife Aimee? Less so.
“I watched the Racing Harlequins game in really big detail over the weekend. I spent my Sunday night watching the game. My missus actually went to the room, done with rugby for the weekend,” he smiles.
“Siya, watching that one game, he’s a massive attacking threat when he gets the ball in hand, quite dangerous.
Defensively he’s solid, he’s a threat at the breakdown. I haven’t seen his lineout skills tested yet.
“Siya is an awesome player, Trevor has been playing off the bench but I know he’ll be involved this weekend.
“They’re two massive South African ball carriers, brute-force players. If Siya has an on-day, we’ll have our hands full.”
It’s taking him a while to experience that winning feeling. Ulster supporters tend to get behind their team, but with that will come huge expectation this weekend.
“It was a bit of a wake-up call but I didn’t think I’d walk in and we’d just start winning. It doesn’t work like that, you have to put in the hard work,” he says of the strange start.
“It’s definitely a bit of a wake-up call and I need to make sure I get my own shit 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.”
It would do no harm for a bit of grim weather to blow in from Belfast harbour on Saturday evening and turn it into the sort of game that Kitshoff can control.
With three losses from his first three games, he hasn’t let it spoil his first impressions.
“The obvious one is the weather. The people in Belfast are super friendly and super helpful,” he says.
“I love the greenery. I love being ten minutes away from training and having such an awesome training facility. It’s been awesome.
“Not having my family close by is quite difficult, we’ll make a plan to see them down the line, have them here to experience what we are here.”
Why leave a team that wins things, though? Stormers were going places. The same has not been said about Ulster for a while. A year ago they were going through a similarly sticky patch. Head coach Dan McFarland rode it out. He knew he had to beef up his pack though, and he sold his vision to Kitshoff.
“Dan made a great bid for me which was awesome. I had long conversations with him and I felt like a bit of a change.
“I had a five-year stint with the Stormers, went to Bordeaux for a couple of seasons, did another seven years there,” he explains.
“For me it was about broadening my horizons, growing a bit as a person and experiencing something new.
“I’ve seen it happen a lot before where guys get stuck in a rut when they stay at the same club too long.
“For me it was all about exploring something new, having that new experience in life, growing as a person. It was an awesome opportunity.”
