SPONSORED | Springboks should embrace 'Stellenbosch on steroids' when they meet Romania at RWC

Joseph Dweba might have missed out on experiencing that feeling himself after only making the Springboks' World Cup stand-by list, but he is excited about the prospect of his teammates experiencing some proverbial home comforts when they play Romania in mid-September.

That thought has nothing to with South Africa's opposition on the day, rather the setting: Bordeaux.

The 27-year-old hooker, now a Stormers star in the URC, spent two years at the south-western coastal city's premier rugby outfit, Bordeaux Begles, and his experience - as he tells Dan Nicholl in the latest edition of Rugby Players’ Guide to France, an exciting series produced by BrightRock that gives SA rugby fans a slice of the French way of rugby and life ahead of the World Cup - made him realise something compelling.

"Bordeaux was just lovely," said Dweba.

"It's like Stellenbosch, just on steroids. All the vineyards are there, there are all these chateaus to witness. We literally live five minutes away from one. It was great."

That would certainly give the Boks a nice fillip in terms of being away from home for such a substantial period of time.

Yet, while Dweba eventually made a decent fist of living and playing in France, the hiccups and growing pains were very much real.

"When we left, it was literally just me, my wife and son at the time. My daughter was still in my woman's belly. We left everything, literally. We just took bags and went to a new country and on a new journey," he said. 

"We got there and, quite frankly, the culture and the language were a shock. Everything was just different. The first few months were a bit tough because I had to adjust to a lot of things. The amount of paperwork you have to sign in France, it's crazy."

Indeed, French