South Africa scrum-half Faf De Klerk believes his career at Sale has helped him thrive on the domestic and international stages.
De Klerk will be an integral part of the Springboks' bid to beat World Cup semi-final opponents Wales in Yokohama on Sunday. His pace and dynamism helped underpin South Africa's revival with head coach Rassie Erasmus at the helm.
And De Klerk feels he is reaping dividends from a move to Gallagher Premiership club Sale.
"The main thing for me when I got to Sale was I got put in a role where I needed to make a difference in the team," he said. "A lot of responsibility came my way in terms of how we wanted to play, how we wanted to kick, how we wanted to play our running game. I started kicking for poles (posts) a lot more, started doing kick-offs. That all helped me a lot to get to where I am now.
"I played a lot of rugby, got a lot of starts, and the head coach Steve Diamond backed me continuously. Then coming back into the South Africa squad with Rassie and everyone we worked with in 2016, it was just a similar thing - the coach backing the players and knowing what they can bring. It's then up to us as players to execute whatever they give to us, and we have to perform at the weekend."
One of the key battles in Sunday's clash will be between De Klerk and his opposite number Gareth Davies, whose knack of scoring interception tries has already been seen in Japan with a spectacular effort against Australia.
"He has scored a few tries from intercepts," De Klerk added. "He is more there to disrupt the attack and get in between the nine and the first forwards, or nine and 10 in the second pod.
"He is trying to disrupt that, get an intercept and score a try. We are aware of it, and we know he does it very well - he's got great speed off the line. We are going to have to be awake on that. If me or Polly (South Africa fly-half Handre Pollard) see him off the line, we will know he is probably going to shoot."