South African adventure 'a massively exciting challenge' for Saints, says Dingwall
Fraser Dingwall says this week's trip to Pretoria is a 'massively exciting challenge' for Saints.
The black, green and gold will fly to South Africa tonight (Monday) ahead of Saturday's Investec Champions Cup clash with the Vodacom Bulls at Loftus Versfeld Stadium.
And Dingwall said: "It will be a little bit of a change and it's a massively exciting challenge, something none of us have encountered before.
"We're hoping to have a great week."
Conditions in South Africa will be a world away from what Saints experienced last Saturday as they battled Storm Darragh to beat Castres 38-8 at cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens.
"At times it wasn't too bad out there," Dingwall said.
"They were pretty tough conditions and that fed into the game, but we were just happy to get a gritty win.
"It's a really good win and the most pleasing thing in those conditions is always the defensive side because people can't move the ball as much so they come down the tubes. We dealt with that really well.
"We did also manage to move the ball at times so it was just a pleasing performance.
"It's a completely different challenge in those conditions and it becomes a game of two halves because of the wind direction.
"In the first half, we had to play into it a bit more and we had to bring our running game alive a bit more because we couldn't move the game up the field as easily through our kicking.
"In the second half, it completely changes because we actually could kick it a lot more.
"It becomes a tactical challenge and it's about the physical side of the game in terms of how aggressive you can be with that."
Dingwall was Saints skipper last weekend, taking part in the pre-match coin toss.
"We didn't win the toss but they chose to go with the wind, which was actually the perfect outcome for us because I would have chosen to go into the wind first half," he said.
"Indirectly, I won the coin toss!"
Saints were happy to be attacking the cinch Stand during the second period as they stretched their 14-3 half-time lead in fine fashion.
"Just largely through experience, I can think of many a game where in the second half we've had comebacks and really attacked well into that end," Dingwall said. "There must be something in it!"