World Cup-winning coach Jacques Nienaber happy to be back on home soil with Leinster

The double World Cup winner spent six years in Cape Town as part of the Stormers coaching team before moving on to the Springboks set-up. Now he has returned to the coastal city with Leinster for Friday night's massive URC opener against the Stormers under the floodlights.

"It's always nice coming back to Cape Town, my family is here," the 52-year-old told the URC website.

"I spent six years at the Stormers. It's a club that was good to me and that I learned a lot from. It gave me a lot of joy and a lot of good memories.

"I'm looking forward to the game against them. It's going to be a massive challenge. They will be very determined. We will have to fight for it, and we will have to go to the gutters for it.

"Not many teams come over here and get a result at the Stormers. They are a very tough team, especially here in Cape Town, with the crowd that they get.

"They are one of the best supported teams within the country. I am sure it's going to be a massive atmosphere on Friday night and one that we are certainly looking forward to.

"It's brilliant for us. We are very excited to be here."

Reflecting on Leinster's opening block of games - where they face the Stormers and Bulls away, before hosting the Sharks and Munster - Nienaber admitted it was a proper challenge.

"We have a tough start," he said.

"We kick off against the Stormers, who finished fifth last season. Then we play the Bulls, who will be very determined after what happened against us in the final. Then it's the Sharks who reached the semi-finals. So, on the hop, it's the three South African teams who finished fifth, second, and third.

"We will have a good idea where we are after those three games, and then it's Munster.

"So our first month is a blockbuster month for us, which is great. We are not entitled to having a good start just because we are the defending champions. We will have to work hard. It will be good for us.

"There's always big determination within the squad, and we are a club that prides ourselves on trying to fight for a trophy on two fronts. We want to fight in the URC and we want to fight in Europe and try to go as deep as possible in both competitions.

"But it's important for us to understand we are not entitled to any trophies. We must work hard for them.

"We've got no right to anything. I don't think the fact that we had a result in the final last year will be relevant. I don't think anybody is going to think 'Hang on, lads, we won a trophy a couple of months ago, so things should be easier.' It's not going to be like that."

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