The tears of anguish that marked the end of Gcobani Bobo's season last year have long evaporated. The new term has brought an opportunity to rediscover the barnstorming form with which he started last year's Super 12 before it was cruelly curtailed into the third match.
The serious cruciate knee ligament damage and the nine months on the sidelines have given the powerful Cats centre ample opportunity to reflect and to steel himself physically.
"It really reminds me of one of my favourite songs at the moment. The lyrics of 'You cry before you smile', encapsulates my whole approach to this season," Bobo said in the bowels of the Johannesburg Stadium.
"I don't look back at it with regret. I'm actually thankful that I got a break of almost a year. Normally you don't get a break that long. It gives you time to do things properly. I worked on strength training.
"I've never been this strong. I think it was a good break. Every player must get a long break in his career but it doesn't need to come with an injury like that.
But Bobo is the first to admit that the ring-rustiness may leave him a little short of his best when the competition kicks off.
"I feel stronger, but getting fitter will take time because I only finished my rehab last week."
Cruciate knee ligament injuries can have a debilitating effect mentally as well as physically but Bobo believes the quality of his preparation has erased any negative thoughts.
"I'm not lacking any confidence as a result of the long lay-off. I totally blocked the seriousness of the injury out of my mind because I knew I had an entire season to recover. That is a long enough period to recuperate fully from an injury like that. I didn't exactly rush back," he said.
With a new coach and several new faces in the Cats' group last year's spectre of failure has all but disappeared.
"It is very different. There is an urgency and an expectation in every player to do well.
"When I look around this team I see so many ball-players, guys with good minds and cool heads and that gives you extra confidence.
"You get the feeling that this is a team of sleeping giants. There are so many guys who can change a game on their own. I don't find too many pedestrians in the team," Bobo opined.
He certainly can't afford to be pedestrian with Jorrie Muller and Adrian Jacobs also vying for midfield spots.
"At the moment I am running outside centre but I don't mind playing inside centre. That opportunity might arise because it is a long season."
Reclaiming a starting position is clearly uppermost on his mind. "My big goal is to play more than three games," he said giggling. "Seriously though, hopefully I will be involved in the last six games in a row."
Seeing out the Super 12 is not his only objective. Bobo's music group 'fifth floor' is hoping to release a CD in the next few months.
"We completed a few tracks and now it's a matter of sitting down and deciding how many we want on the CD. Is it a matter of throwing ourselves onto the market or do we want to introduce ourselves first.?
Going the reality TV route was not a "fifth floor" option. "We didn't want to get involved in the talent reality shows because we have pride. We want to do our own music or our own thing.
"There is a lot of exploitation within the industry so it's better to have things in your own hands," he said.