There are some things you know are coming but that you still can’t really prepare for when it comes to these short, sharp, shock cross-hemisphere trips.
The altitude burning the lungs and sucking energy from the legs, the heat especially on the highveld, the thin air requiring more time in the warm-up to gauge the flight and bounce of the ball, as well as living in and sharing a hotel room for nearly two weeks and not getting much if any headspace away from your team-mates .
The mini-tour asks more of you and that’s not even getting to the difficulties in playing the host teams though, of course, Ulster did turn heads by winning twice in South Africa the season before last when defeating the Lions and then, due to sickness, returning later in the campaign to down the Sharks.
Still, it’s hardly a thing to be relished and Ulster, as has been admitted several times, are perhaps fortunate to get their cross-hemisphere fixtures, barring any potential play-offs further down the line, done and dusted early in the season.
As Michael Lowry explains: “We work hard, we train hard, and we are hard on each other in meetings and reviews.
“We will try to get at each other a bit because we want the best out of the team,” and, just in case you think the trip is laden with such tension, the 26-year-old adds, “apart from that it, is great being in a hotel together and spending time together with the lads.
“A lot of the lads are well used to it now, I think it is a great bonding period, and it is a lot of good fun.”.
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This will be the first time Ulster have played back-to-back games at South African altitude so, naturally, the topic is up for discussion particularly as the squad have spent some of this week in Cape Town down at sea level before heading back up to play in Pretoria on Saturday.
“I don’t think it ever gets easy out here at altitude and it’s not something that you really can prepare for either,” admits Lowry, who emerged from the bench in last week’s bonus point defeat at the Lions.
“The only way I can sort of prepare for it is not to think about it too much and just let the lungs take the damage on it.
“We have talked about altitude being a big factor. But we still have to focus on what we want to be able to do, and not worry about the altitude, we have a game plan that we need to execute.”
The theory goes that the Bulls will be considerably more ruthless and efficient than the Lions as well as being less likely to allow Ulster access to the contest should Marcell Coetzee and his colleagues — some of whom may have returned to club action after being on Springbok duty — replicate the Lions by running up a big score.
The Bulls also have signage in the tunnel leading out to Loftus Versfeld which reminds all those visiting sides of their situation as to how high they are above sea level, just in case it had somehow not been noticed .
“I think you can see definitely from the results those teams have, it is a factor for them,” Lowry says as we return to the altitude issue .
“The Lions have the same thing as you come down their tunnel to make sure you are thinking about it.
“We were the first team to do the double in South Africa, so we know how tough it is, everyone really struggles out here.
“(But) I’m really looking forward to another challenge and I think we have a lot to prove after last weekend.”