It is hard enough having to travel more than 10,000km to take on a grizzled, hard-hitting opponent hellbent on revenge.
Then throw in your recent run of average form and playing at a ground where everyone in the crowd will hate you.
Yes, the Highlanders will be up against it this weekend when they take on the Sharks in a playoff match in Durban in South Africa.
Let's not mince words. It is going to be hellishly tough.
But, things just got bleaker. It is now almost doomsday dark.
Who is refereeing this big match?
The Highlanders' first playoff game in 12 years?
That friend of the South, that man of the hair gel and tattooed arm.
The one and only - Steve Walsh.
Walsh, the man who has refereed 22 games involving the Highlanders, for a mighty, wait for it, wait for it, two Highlanders victories.
Yes, you read that right.
Two from 22.
We know the Highlanders have had some average seasons over the past few years, but two wins from 22 under one referee is in the realms of Ripley's Believe It or Not.
Walsh is no good luck charm for the Highlanders. He is the black cat, walking under a ladder, breaking a mirror while opening an umbrella indoors, rolled into one.
Walsh first refereed the Highlanders in 1997 against the Blues in Dunedin and, of course, the home team lost.
They have kept on losing almost ever since.
The only two victories for the southern men under Walsh were in 2001, against the Crusaders, and last year over - perhaps this is a good omen - the Sharks.
Colin Hawke used to be public enemy No 1 for southern rugby fans after his controversial calls against Otago and the Highlanders. Walsh appears to have taken over that mantle.
He has refereed the Highlanders twice this year.
No surprise, they lost - against the Blues and the Waratahs.
Hopefully, for Highlanders fans, it will be third time lucky this weekend.