The Stormers will host their first ever overseas team in the United Rugby Championship in the Mother City on the weekend.
But don’t make plans to go to their Cape Town Stadium home, you’ll miss the match as they will play an historic outing at the Danie Craven Stadium in Stellenbosch.
Regular readers of this column will know that I’ll have lots to say on the Stormers not being able to host this historic clash at “their” new “home”, but instead I want to focus on the positives and the prospect of seeing the ninth-placed team in the European Champions Cup next term.
With their next seven matches all being home games, before finishing off the round-robin stage against Scarlets in May, I can see the Stormers climbing the ladder big time.
Make the top eight at the end of the round-robin stage and they are guaranteed a quarterfinal place in the tournament.
Win the South African Shield and gain automatic qualification to next year’s European Champions Cup… and that’s where we want to be, playing against the cream of the crop in Europe.
Even if they don’t win the SA Shield and finish as one of the four best-placed teams after the Shield winners are crowned, they will still make it to the big leagues.
For now, though, Herschel Jantjies and his teammates have to shake off their disappointing defeat to Connacht last time out and kickstart a home run to get fans dreaming of playoff rugby and the Champions Cup.
Against the winless Zebre from Italy in Stellenbosch, they should have a good chance of making it one from one.
And after that, let’s hope they can turn Cape Town Stadium into a fortress.