Jean de Villiers says that Munster must park their emotions if they are to become URC champions on Saturday.
At the end of Graham Rowntree's first year in charge, the Reds have a chance of winning silverware for the first time in 12 years when they face the Stormers in the Grand Final in Cape Town.
De Villiers knows what is going through the minds of so many of the Munster players. He himself only lifted trophies while playing for South Africa, so he endured fruitless stints at Western Force, the Stormers, Munster and Leicester Tigers.
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His time with Munster came a year after the province's second Champions Cup triumph in 2008 and a year before their 2011 Magners League success.
"There will be emotion in all of this and sometimes you can be caught in the emotion in that you’ve been there so many times before," said the former centre.
“You haven’t been able to get it over the line and then you start thinking about that and, 'why them...why didn’t it happen for me?'
"And you get emotional about it. Unfortunately emotion doesn’t win you anything.
"Emotion will play a part on the weekend and get you fired up but it’s about the execution on the day, that’s the important thing.
“The one element is the preparation and being able to analyse the opposition and the way you’ve been playing and then formulating a game plan but even more important is the execution on the day.
“You need to be up for it, you need to be at your very best and if you do that then you’ve got a massive shot to be able to win it.
“Sometimes the reality is also that you play your best game but the opposition plays their best game as well and actually win. Then you say ‘well, we gave it our all, we were beaten by a better team'.
“So it’s one of those things that no-one can really put their finger on it.
"All you can do as a player is try and prepare for what’s possible and then when the opportunity comes on Saturday, you need to execute and make sure that you don’t leave any stone unturned.”
De Villiers believes the run Munster have been on away from home, culminating in the semi-final victory over Leinster at the Aviva Stadium, is "gold" coming into a week like this.
He also recalls the "warning signs" at the start of the season, when Munster started very slowly.
Speaking on a media call for the BKT United Rugby Championship from his home in South Africa, the 42-year-old said: "That's the beauty of rugby and team sports - when you go through losses like that and a losing streak, it either splits the team and each guy goes in his own direction or it actually unites the squad.
"And from a manager or head coach point of view, you need to have the ability for the latter to be realised and obviously Graham had the ability to bring the team together and to make them believe in themselves to get to where they are today.
"Maybe that was just the turning point that they needed, they went so low and they just decided, 'well, now there is no turning back from here or there's no going any lower'.
"For the experienced guys like Pete (O'Mahony) who is Munster through and through, it's about showing their passion, showing what it really means more than the results on a Saturday, it's what it means and what it takes to be a Munster man.
"Then those youngsters who now enter this environment without fear, they start learning that culture as well and they become more powerful.
"The fact that they have done it before here in South Africa will give them massive, massive confidence going into this game.
“It’s about being able to replicate that again and also knowing that the team on the other side wants to rectify the mistakes they made in the previous game.
“All of that just sets us up for a fantastic final - now it's just getting over that last hurdle."
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