- The Cheetahs' disappointment at losing Jasper Wiese a few months ago is rapidly becoming clear as he's been in cracking form in the English Premiership.
- The versatile 25-year-old flanker has been immense as an attacking presence for Leicester Tigers, culminating in a brace of tries this past weekend against Worcester.
- His discipline might still need work, but there's no doubt that the man from Upington is on his way to being another lost talent for the domestic system
Hawies Fourie, the genial head coach of the Cheetahs, is understandably glum whenever he loses a key player.
In the past three months, the central franchise has suffered from myriad of departures.
However, if there was one player who made his disappointment seem palpable it was Jasper Wiese.
"There are coaches who discard players when they're leaving," Fourie said shortly before his star flanker's departure back in October.
"I trust my players to give their best till the end. Jasper is such a player. It's really sad to lose him."
The broader rugby fraternity is now seeing why Wiese's is a massive loss.
The versatile 25-year-old joined England's Leicester Tigers and has progressively been wreaking havoc in the Premiership, particularly as an attacker.
Wiese scored a brace of tries this past weekend in his team's 41-24 victory over Worcester Warriors, who boasted Bulls target Francois Hougaard in their line-up.
He was typically humble afterwards.
"I'm feeling good," Wiese told LTTV, the club's official media channel.
"But it's not really my tries at all. When you score from driving mauls, it's definitely the forward pack's tries as a whole. Nonetheless, I'm feeling pretty good after that win."
The "unfashionable" nature of his tries was ironic as Wiese has been eye-catching on attack in general.
It all started on debut in November against Gloucester, where he had observers in awe when, in the ninth minute, it took no less than seven defenders to belatedly bring him down from a run inside his own 22.
That match saw Wiese make 73 running metres from 11 carries, which saw him beat six defenders and make a clean break, along with seven tackles.
Following the latest round of fixtures, he's third overall in the selfsame metres category with 382 and has beaten the second most defenders (26).
Wiese also features in the top ten for clean breaks and boasts a tackle success rate of 90%.
Discipline remains a bit of an Achilles heel for the man from Upington - it saw him cop two substantial bans previously in the PRO14 - but there's little doubt that his impact has been immediate.