IT'S a brave new world for South African rugby as two teams swap the punishing travel schedule from Super Rugby for the slightly less troublesome one of the new Guinness PRO14. It is not, however, new ground for all, especially in Bloemfontein, where the Cheetahs play.

For one, Franco Smith, their director of rugby, cut his coaching teeth in the old PRO12, when he took charge of Benetton Treviso at a time when it looked as though they might be about to break into the big time. They also have playing experience with Rynier Bernardo, the lock, who had a spell at the Scarlets.

On top of that they are coached by Rory Duncan, who, in different circumstances, could have ended up playing for Scotland. "Edinburgh is a very special place for me," he said. "I still have my place in Edinburgh [rented out] and still have very good friends there who I have been back to see quite a few times. I have very fond memories of my days there."

Perhaps things might have been different had the Scottish-qualified lock come at a different time. The Durban-born player with a grandmother from Dundee was invited over by Watsonians at a time when they still harboured ambitions of rivalling the SRU-backed pro teams.

Contact between the Watsonians players and Edinburgh was frowned on and by the time Duncan got close to taking his chance at Edinburgh, his contract was running out.

"I did train and sit on the bench for Edinburgh but at that time it was different, you played for your club and they did not act as a feeder to the professional teams in the way they do now. It was only at the back end of the season that we were able to represent Edinburgh," he recalled.

"It was a fantastic experience even though I did not have the opportunity [to move on to the pro teams]. I ended up coming back to South Africa and, oddly enough, playing for the Cheetahs. I played for them for three-and-a-half seasons."

So for Duncan, the chance to come back and coach his current team in Scotland has turned into one of the big draws of the new-look, two-conference PRO14. It is slightly unfortunate that the Cheetahs are in the other group to Edinburgh and play them only in Bloemfontein, but they do have a visit to Glasgow to look forward to.

"I am pretty sure that we are going to stay in Edinburgh, though," Duncan revealed. "I think that would be fantastic for the guys who have not been there and experienced it, which I think is 99% of them. It is going to be a fantastic experience.

"We are working with a younger group of players who enjoy travelling, that is the one positive – these guys do not really get tired of travel. For the core group of our players it is their fourth season together but the average age is still around 24. It is a young team and the guys are excited to experience new places."

When they do turn up, Duncan has a fund of stories from his period with Watsonians. There were the practical jokes, such as the times he and other senior players would ring the youngsters in the squad – which included Neil Cochrane, the current Edinburgh hooker as well as Alan Nash, who is now retired from playing and running his own property company – pretending to be journalists demanding interviews.

Best of all, however, was the one unquestioned tale of triumph: "There were a lot of good things and good wins but one of the things I was most excited about was that I had not played much sevens rugby," Duncan recalled.

"I got the opportunity to play for Watsonians in the Peebles sevens and we ended up winning the tournament. That was late in the season, but a nice experience, something different, something that I remember. I still have the trophy, the little medal."