To win away from home is something that the DHL Stormers have focused on as a group of players said their head coach John Dobson.
"Our only controllable is how we prepare and how we apply that attention to detail on match day. Our home record is impressive at the DHL Stadium, with 20 wins in succession, but greatness is defined by how you can conquer a field when away from home.
We are a squad that has grown in depth, and we are a management that has trusted our kids to produce as starters and finishers, regardless of being 19 or 20. Equally, we have trusted the qualities of those veterans to play with the enthusiasm and energy of kids.
We have such respect for every team we play in how we prepare for a match, home or away, but the greatest respect we have is for each other in that we trust that whoever wears the jersey is selected because they are good enough.
We’ve had to manage to play in two competitions simultaneously and we have had to do so without many of our current Test Springboks, but we’ve seen every match as an opportunity
Ulster, in Belfast, is another one of the great away challenges and we’ve picked a match-day squad that is consistent with how we have managed our players throughout the season.
Win, draw or lose, the players will fight and do justice to the jersey, but one highlight does not make a career and one terrible low does not destroy a career. There will be lessons with each match we play, regardless of the result.
In club rugby, the Crusaders, Leinster and Saracens have set the standards. Toulouse for many years was the leader of everything wonderful about French rugby and the Toulon side that won three successive Heineken Cups was a product of a World XV playing together for three seasons.
I know the DHL Stormers have the potential to sit at club rugby’s top table, but I also know that we are still in our infancy of knowing what is possible, in what we take from wins and what we learn from those less successful occasions.
We have a plan and that is to build a squad of players, closer to 40 than a match-day 23, who can beat anyone, whether the match is being played in Cape Town or anywhere else in the world.
I know it is possible and I know there will be days where we humble opposition and there will be occasions where we are humbled. Ultimately, though, we want to be on the right side of the ledger when it comes to the emotion we get to feel."
