Jean de Villiers implores Stormers to go all the way in URC: 'Shield wins mean nothing'

Former Stormers skipper Jean de Villiers has issued a stark warning to the class of 2022: go all the way in the United Rugby Championship (URC) or suffer the familiar hollow feeling of "what if".

John Dobson's charges were crowned the South African shield winners of this season's inaugural campaign following a brilliant return of 12 victories from 18 starts, which included a season-low four losses.

But that will matter very little in the greater scheme of things if it's accompanied by failure in the playoffs, which commence with the quarter-finals next weekend.

The Stormers host Edinburgh at the Cape Town Stadium.

De Villiers, who boasts a century of Springbok and Super Rugby caps, isn't sitting on a high horse when he expresses that sentiment - he experienced it himself, thrice, in the 2011, 2012 and 2015 southern hemisphere campaigns, where silverware in the SA conference amounted to nothing.

The Stormers also failed to get past the quarter-finals in 2016 and 2017 despite topping their Africa 1 group.

"Winning shields mean nothing, trust me on that one," De Villiers said at Thursday's launch of SA Rugby and Betway's partnership to empower coaches in the local women's game.

"It's a nice-to-have, but you need to go all the way and actually win the tournament."

READ | Stormers' long history of home playoff troubles

Yet that's where his hard-nosed attitude stops as he believes the Stormers deserve a lot of credit for conjuring up a style of play that's not only brought results with it, but captured the imagination of the rugby public.

All the more impressive is the fact that they've done so with the distraction of suspended Western Province president Zelt Marais waging war with SA Rugby over the union being put under