League: No limits as Lang takes Rabbitohs' helm

Huge expectations and, says new South Sydney coach John Lang, no limits on where the Rabbitohs can finish the 2010 NRL season.

Does that mean a first premiership since 1971 for the league's most successful club? No predictions either, says Lang.

"I don't want to put any limits on how far we can go," Lang said.

"I'm not making predictions. The big challenge for us is to operate effectively as a team because we've got a lot of good players, but so do other clubs."

A lot more good players too, after adding Great Britain international Sam Burgess, Brisbane destroyer Dave Taylor and Queensland State of Origin representative Ben Ross to their roster during the off-season.

Burgess is perhaps the most hyped Englishman ever to arrive on these shores, Taylor was one of the players of 2009 and Ross is looking to rebuild his career after a serious neck injury.

With an already formidable pack led by captain Roy Asotasi, they should ensure the premiership's equal-fifth favourites boast one of the most intimidating forward outfits of recent times.

"I think it's the size (of the pack) probably more than anything that everybody's talking about and there's an advantage in size, but there's a disadvantage," Lang says.

"I think probably more than (trying to) meet the physical challenge, oppositions will probably try and take advantage of it and maybe test our mobility in defence.

"That's one of the things that obviously the big guys have to work on, work hard on their fitness so that their size doesn't become a disadvantage."

With utility Craig Wing their only major loss, Lang's task perhaps boils down to getting the talented but inconsistent halves pairing of John Sutton and Chris Sandow to capitalise on the work of those big men.

No player excites Rabbitohs fans more than Sutton, the sublimely gifted five-eighth who has battled injuries in recent years.

"He's a very important part of what we're doing, there's no doubt about that," Lang said.

"I don't think we have an over-reliance on him, we've got a brilliant little halfback in Chrissy Sandow, we've got a really good little back-up half for Chrissy in our under-20s (Adam Reynolds) so we don't all of a sudden lose all of the creativity if Sutto's not there.

"I think other clubs are maybe even more reliant on one of their halves than we are."

Not surprisingly, Lang nominates defence as the key area needing work.

But he is not obsessed by it and cites the premiership he won at Penrith with fellow Rabbitohs Ross, fullback Rhys Wesser and CEO Shane Richardson in 2003 as proof you don't need the best in the league.

"You've got to defend well enough," he says.

"You don't have to have the best defensive record but, in the end, last year we scored plenty of points but we got outscored by the opposition too often.

"We probably spent too much time getting out of our own end. If we can improve that, it will give us a shot in every game."

Premiership No.21 has proven elusive for the "Pride of the League" and Lang, who replaced the sacked Jason Taylor late last year, is under no illusions about what he has taken on.

"It is a fair responsibility I suppose when you think about it, it's a famous club," he says.

"A friend in Brisbane has been a Souths supporter all his life. When I started working here he said, 'You've finally made it'."