Cardiff coach Matt Sherratt says making the BKT United Rugby Championship play-offs would be the icing on the cake of a much improved season.
The Arms Park side take on the fifth-placed DHL Stormers in Cape Town on Friday night, knowing that, realistically, they have to win to secure a top eight finish.
It’s not inconceivable that a couple of bonus points in defeat could be enough for them, depending on results elsewhere, but Sherratt is clear in his own mind about what is required.
“It’s a must-win game in terms of getting in that top eight,” he said, with his team heading into the weekend in ninth spot on 46 points.
“We spoke a couple of months ago about what we were going to need to guarantee the play-offs and we actually called it our ‘Fight for 50’.
“Fifty points is what has secured a top eight finish over the last three or four seasons and we knew we were probably going to have to win on the road.
“We believe we can beat the Stormers and that’s what we have to do. That’s got to be our mindset going there. The only pressure on us is to try and put in our best performance that we possibly can.
“I think it would be brilliant to make the play-offs. Cardiff have never been in there and with the club’s history and potential we should be getting into the top eight.”
Reflecting on that quest, he said: “It’s been brilliant for the players. You can see the whole squad have loved being in the mix.
“It’s the first time since I’ve been at Cardiff where we are in the middle of May and we are right in the fight for the play-offs. It’s made this last six weeks so much more competitive and enjoyable.
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“Sometimes a season can kind of peter out and you are looking for the end, but there’s a real good feeling in the group at the moment.”
Sherratt added: “I’m pretty proud of the staff and the players this season. Our budget actually decreased from last year, so to get the improvements we’ve had has been good.
“We’ve doubled the amount of games we’ve won and turned a lot of those tight losses into tight wins.
“The icing on the cake would be to push into the top eight.
“It would probably be more than we imagined at the start of the season.
“I would like us to get in the play-offs because it’s something we haven’t done before and the upshot of that is you get into Europe.
“It’s going to be a tough ask. The Stormers are one of the form teams in the competition.
“But, in a one-off game, if we’ve got our players fit, I think we are a pretty dangerous team.”
Giving his thoughts, Stormers coach John Dobson said: “What Cardiff have achieved this season, with the reduction in budget and the circumstances Welsh rugby has gone through, I think they deserve a lot of credit.
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“They are clearly going to put up a hell of a fight. Having put so much into the season and made progress, they won’t want it to fade out on a cold night in Cape Town, so we know what we’ve got coming.”
The Stormers have made ten changes in personnel, plus a couple of positional switches, while Cardiff have drafted Welsh internationals Taulupe Faletau, Callum Sheedy, Teddy Williams and Aled Davies into their starting line-up.
Stormers: Damian Willemse; Suleiman Hartzenberg, Wandisile Simelane, Dan du Plessis, Leolin Zas; Manie Libbok, Herschel Jantjies; Sti Sithole, Joseph Dweba, Neethling Fouche, Salmaan Moerat (capt), JD Schickerling, Dave Ewers, Louw Nel, Marcel Theunissen.
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Replacements: Scarra Ntubeni, Vernon Matongo, Sazi Sandi, Connor Evans, Paul de Villiers, Paul de Wet, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Ben Loader.
Cardiff: Cameron Winnett; Josh Adams, Harri Millard, Ben Thomas, Gabriel Hamer-Webb; Callum Sheedy, Aled Davies; Danny Southworth, Evan Lloyd, Keiron Assiratti, Josh McNally (capt), Teddy Williams, Alun Lawrence, Alex Mann, Taulupe Faletau.
Replacements: Dafydd Hughes, Corey Domachowski, Rhys Litterick, Rory Thornton, James Botham, Dan Thomas, Johan Mulder, Rory Jennings.
Referee: Gianluca Gnecchi (FIR)
Assistant referees: AJ Jacobs & Hanru van Rooyen (SARU)
TMO: Andrea Piardi (FIR)
