Ripping in: Waratahs forward Jacques Potgieter crashes into a teammate at training during the week.

The day the Waratahs wrapped up the minor premiership was the day Jacques Potgieter decided to tell his old club he was not interested.

The Bulls were having a chronic case of the Joni Mitchells – “You don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone”. They had let Potgieter go after two seasons and watched him go from strength to damaging strength with a team that appreciated his skill set.

Now they wanted him back. Immediately. For three years.

It was the week leading into one of the crunch games of the NSW regular season, when a win over the Highlanders would seal the province’s maiden minor premiership.

Potgieter had a few things to weigh up.

“I was sitting in the change room before the game, sitting next to Michael [Cheika] and listening to what he was saying,” he said. “He spoke about something off the field, it had nothing to do with rugby, and I thought ‘I would be stupid to go away from this’.”

The team went out for their warm-up in the Sunday afternoon sun. As usual, they finished with a huddle under the goalposts.

“Standing under those poles, grabbing each other and looking at each other, you know you’re going to go out there and those people are going to put their bodies on the line for you because you’re going to do that for them.

“I just thought again, it would be really dumb for me to go away from something like that.”

So Potgieter stayed and will see out his second year at NSW. He is signed with Japanese club the Sanix Blues until 2017 but considers himself a long-term Waratah, or at least a long-term Michael Cheika devotee.

“He makes you believe in anything,” Potgieter said of the complex character who has inspired rare devotion in his squad.”

“If someone talks to you and says ‘run through that wall’ you’re going to say no, but the way Michael comes to you and talks to you, you’ll run through that wall. You don’t even think twice.”

He thought a couple of times before signing with NSW. Potgieter was headed to Saracens and despite his respect for Cheika, the three-Test Springbok knew it had not worked out as well as was hoped at Moore Park for fellow South Africans Hendrik Roodt and Sarel Pretorius.

“I knew it was going to be difficult because if you’re a foreign player there are a lot of eyes on you,” he said. “Everyone wants the foreign player to fail. It’s so easy to say ‘they didn’t make it and he’s coming here and also not going to make it’.”

“I didn’t want to be like that, I wanted people to talk good about me, not talk bad.”

In their first few conversations last year, Cheika urged Potgieter to do his homework. He phoned three guys who had all played under Cheika in Europe and then phoned Pretorius. He liked what he heard, but came in eyes wide open.

So it is hard to say who was more shocked – crowd or player – when Potgieter’s hard, wild style first drew a standing ovation at ANZ Stadium five months ago.

The notoriously taciturn Sydney rugby contingent were on their feet when Cheika hooked his foreign import after 45 minutes. Waratahs fans were hooked.

They still are and never fail to show their appreciation for the South African’s contribution to not only the Waratahs’ entertainment factor but the resurgence of their fighting spirit.

“I remember that moment so clearly when I walked off the field,” he said of the 32-5 thumping of the Reds. “At the Bulls people cheered for you, but my second game I played here at ANZ Stadium, I walked off the field and everyone went crazy.”

My heart started beating faster, I thought ‘how good is this’.

“I was sitting on the bench and I was half out of breath. Not because of the game but because of the crowd. I gave it about five or 10 minutes and looked around at the people and thought this is amazing to be here. I made the right decision to come here.”

Potgieter has been bullish all year about the Waratahs’ chances, predicting last month they would be “unstoppable” when all the elements of their game clicked at some point.

Is Saturday night too soon? Is it a season too early for a side which was, only a year ago, still recovering from the scars of a dark couple of seasons.

“I think the key to winning this week is the team that goes out there and enjoys themselves, the team that goes out there and just plays,” he said.

“[In] finals rugby, if you’re going to go out there and take everything too seriously, it might count against you. That’s what I think. If you’re going to go out there, enjoy, play and take risks, we’ll win.”