No excuses for Cardiff with South Africa trip

Cardiff say there will be no excuses when they travel to face South Africa for the United Rugby Championship (URC) play-off quarter-final against Stormers.

Cardiff face an expensive and logistically challenging trip to Cape Town for the match on Saturday, 30 May.

After looking at the cost and availability to travel this weekend, Cardiff will fly on Tuesday and land in South Africa a few days before the match.

Cardiff lock Josh McNally and flanker Dan Thomas say the coaches and players will not allow the 12,000-mile round trip or the prospect of sitting in economy class distract them from their hopes of reaching the semi-finals.

"We've all travelled enough now to know what's happening and what's coming," Thomas told the Scrum V podcast.

"There is no excuse when it comes to travel or the body being sore or anything like that.

"As long as your mentality is up there, your body will catch up and we need to turn up next Saturday with the right mentality.

"There are no excuses, this is a great opportunity. How many boys have played in quarter-finals before? If you're not up for it mentally, you shouldn't be on the pitch."

Cardiff cemented their quarter-final qualification with a 22-16 victory against Stormers to set up a rematch in South Africa.

The game will be played in Cape Town which means there are no issues with altitude, so Cardiff will begin the week training in Wales and finish it in South Africa.

"The beauty of it in Cape Town, it's at sea level and it's winter now," said McNally.

"So there's nothing too major to prepare for. We will do most of our training up here, then go down for a smash and grab and see where we are."

Stormers will be strong favourites as they aim for revenge.

"That is set up perfectly for us," said McNally.

"You see the best of us when we're underdogs. No one gave us a chance last Friday and we come out with a bit between our teeth.

"You can say there's a few challenges next week but we go down there and do something.

"We know exactly how we want to play. We're genuinely excited to be still playing rugby at this time of year when others are off.

"It gives boys a new experience of playing play-offs and it's an exciting time."

Cardiff will face some sort of bill for the trip with URC organisers understood to provide about £125,000 which will cover the majority of the flights.

Cardiff are not the only side facing such issues - with Munster also travelling to South Africa to play Bulls in Pretoria.

Johannesburg-based Lions have already been away from South Africa for a couple of weeks after playing their final two regular league matches away in Europe.

They have decided to stay in the Republic of Ireland for another couple of weeks and they will play Leinster in Dublin.

The shortest trip will be for west of Ireland province Connacht who will fly from Galway to Glasgow to face the Scottish top seeds on Friday, 29 May.