The 33-year-old has made a huge impact in South Africa since joining from Bath in January winning two man of the match awards with the Stormers second in their conference. And Roberts, who won 94 caps for Wales along with three for the British & Irish Lions, believes his southern hemisphere adventure has improved his game.
“We had a great start winning our first four games,” said Roberts. “Three of those were at home at Newlands and we beat the Lions away with a last minute try at Ellis Park in Johannesburg.
“That was one of the toughest games I’ve ever played in. Not so much physically but because of the heat and altitude.
“It was absolutely brutal! It was just over 30 degrees and at altitude and I don’t think I’ve experienced conditions like that in my career before.
“To play in that dry heat at altitude put my lungs on fire. I literally couldn’t move by 75 minutes so that was very tough.
“Super Rugby is challenging my skillset and I feel as if I’m distributing the ball more. I’m not playing a complete ball carrying role with the Stormers which was my role in many sides throughout my career.
“You feel that you are a guy that gives the team momentum but we’ve got a hell of a forward pack here so I don’t have to do that as much. When you do take on the line as a ball player or a ball carrier you are running into less humans.
“There’s more aggressive line speed at home so a lot of the time you are carrying into two people whereas here teams have to defend at width because you can get the ball out so quickly meaning it’s often one on one collisions. In that respect if you can use your footwork a bit more I think your offloading game comes into play more.
“It’s testing my skill set especially my ability to pass at full pace in terms of 15-20 metre passes.” Roberts was arguably at the peak of his powers on the 2009 Lions tour to South Africa when he gave the Springboks a torrid time with his explosive carrying and intelligent offloading game.
And he has revealed he would like to face the Lions when they open their 2021 tour against the Stormers in Cape Town. He said: “The Stormers play the British & Irish Lions in the opening game of the 2021 tour and being a rugby romantic having been on that tour in 2009 to get the chance to play against the Lions in South Africa would be pretty cool.
“We are having conversations about maybe doing that. The opportunity to keep on the adventure and maybe experience America or Japan would also be awesome.”
