As the reigning QLD Premier Rugby champions and the first Queensland side to claim the Australian Club Rugby Championship since 2011, having beaten Shute Shield premiers Sydney Uni last weekend, GPS will carry the burden of overwhelming pressure and sky-high expectations this season.

There’s no point shying away from that though, head coach Elwee Prinsloo says, and that’s why he’s urging his troops to not just embrace the challenge but instead push harder than ever to improve and rise to it.

Overview with Elwee Prinsloo: 

“In 2017 we lost the grand final against University of Queensland but we’d started building something, we knew what sort of game suited us and in 2018 we were able to build from where we left off,” Prinsloo told Rugby News.

“We were able to retain most of the players, the core of the group stayed together and of course with that you don’t start at ground zero, it made it easier to build from the year before.

“Apart from building our game a little bit a big thing was making sure we could put teams away. The year before we’d found ourselves leading by 20 or 25 points at half time and in some of those games we actually lost, or just narrowly won.

“In 2018 we made progress on that and we were able to start to put teams away when we needed to, I thought we became a bit more relentless around how we played and how we went about things.

“We had a bit of change in our backs, as we’ve had again this year, but the big thing was just to play to our strengths. The year before we had a five-eighth who was more of a kicking player, he plugged the corners, whereas last year we had a five-eighth [whose boot wasn’t as strong].

“He was physical and we were able to be more direct in the 10, 12 channels. With two real physical strengths through the mid-field it was hard to defend and gave us good go-forward.

“We built around that and once we found ourselves in unstructured attack, you know, our support play has been good the last couple of years so we knew we could convert those opportunities when we created that pressure it was just about how we created that pressure in 2018.

“The boys did a great job of that towards the back end of the season because I thought UQ was an outstanding team but I think we were able to stand up at the end when it counted.

“We have a lot of teams (but) only two teams played in grand finals in 2018 so the obvious goal (for 2019) is to get all our teams into grand finals, not just in the finals process. The women’s team did really well to play in their first ever semi-final last year and a big focus will be colts, to make sure they make the four as they haven’t for a while.

“Pat O’Connor runs the program down there and he’s done a great job so far (in the pre-season) so hopefully we can get some results.”

2018: Premiers (won 23-16 over University of Queensland).

Ins: Esera Tapeli (NZ Warriors), DP De Lange (South Africa), Matt Leider (USC Barbarians), Maalonga Konelio (Perth).

Outs: James Tuttle (injury), Chris Kuridrani (Montpellier), Alfonso Horomia, Jaye Thompson, Albert Nikoro.

Key areas of improvement:

“We know we have a strong set-piece even though we were under the pump on the weekend against Sydney Uni. Sydney Uni are fairly renowned for their set-piece so it was a great battle, but one they probably got the better of to be fair,” Prinsloo explained.

“To win competitions you have to have a good defensive system in place but the main thing for us to try and be more proactive around our kicking game, and how we use it to attack rather than just kicking when we’re under pressure.

“Being smarter around our kicking game, that’s something we’ve been working on a lot so hopefully it pays off come next weekend when we start playing for points.”

Player(s) to watch: 

“ [James] Tuttle is injured so he’ll be out for the season, he did his Achilles, but Jordan Lenec was our second option at No.9 and is now our first option, he was outstanding against Sydney Uni on the weekend so I’ve got a lot of confidence in him,” Prinsloo explained.

“Our No.10 (DP de Lange) is new this year, he’s from South Africa and has played a bit of Varsity Cup and Currie Cup there. Our centre combination is new, in fact one of our centres is [Maalonga Konelio], who played for us in 2017 then left for the (Western) Force but has come back now and he’s an outstanding player, a Super (Rugby) quality player.

“Esera Tapeli is from New Zealand, he was contracted to the Warriors in the under 20s and we got him from there, obviously brand new to union but just a crazy talent, although it might take some time for him to settle.”

Hopes and expectations for 2019:

“I’m not going to say we don’t want to go back-to-back, that’s why we play footy, but it’s not something we talk about,” Prinsloo said.

“At the end of the day, [going back-to-back] is such a special thing, so you’ve got to become a lot better than the year before to give yourself a chance. 

“So all the talk around our group and all our actions are around improving, you know, how do we get better at what we’re good at and how do we get better at what we need to get good at.”

Who will GPS play in the grand final this year?:

“That’s a tough question,” Prinsloo said.

“UQ will always be there, Mick Heenan is an outstanding coach up there. I’ve been working with him for two years now with Brisbane City and just a great bloke, great coach.

“I think Brothers will come back into the four this year, whether they make a grand final or not I’m not sure but then I think Souths too, they’ve got a star-studded backline and if [they can perform] they’ll give themselves a really good chance of making that grand final as well too.”