The Cheetahs have gone with their near strongest possible side for the match, bar the absence of Oupa Mohoje, Willie Britz, Francois Uys and Rayno Benjamin.

For the Kings it’s an opportunity to improve on their less than convincing 22-16 win over the SWD Eagles last week, and this is exactly what coach Deon Davids is expecting from his team.

“We want to see this week that when we get opportunities, that we can get points out of it and when we get the ball from our own set piece, that we have the ability to keep it for longer phases.

“Then also that we play our territory game better, I just felt that last week in the first half there were time that we played rugby in the wrong half of the field.

“So we want to get that right this weekend and try to look for an improvement.”

Tonight’s game at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium kicks off at 19:00.

Meanwhile, last night the Sharks secured an impressive 31-17 win over Toulouse in France with flyhalf Garth April scoring 21 points.

At 11:30 on Friday morning the Reds take on the Brumbies at Ballymore.

Saturday sees the Western Force facing the Asia Pacific Dragons in Perth, while the Blues host the Hurricanes.

At 16:00 the Stormers will test their mettle against the new boys, the Los Jaguars of Argentina, while at 17:00 it’s a Jukskei derby with the Bulls hosting the Lions in Polokwane.

Toyota Cheetahs - 15 Sergeal Petersen, 14 Maphutha Dolo, 13 Francois Venter (captain), 12 William Small-Smith, 11 Raymond Rhule, 10 Sias Ebersohn, 9 Shaun Venter, 8 Niell Jordaan, 7 Uzair Cassiem, 6 Boom Prinsloo, 5 Lood de Jager (vice-captain), 4 Carl Wegner, 3 Maks van Dyk, 2 Torsten van Jaarsveld, 1 Charles Marais.

Replacements – 16 Jacques du Toit, 17 Danie Mienie, 18 Luan de Bruin, 19 Reniel Hugo, 20 Hilton Lobberts, 21 Paul Schoeman, 22 Henco Venter, 23 Tian Meyer, 24 Fred Zeilinga, 25 Michael van der Spuy, 25 Clayton Blommetjies.

Southern Kings - 15 Jurgen Visser, 14 Luzuko Vulundlu, 13 Stefan Watermeyer, 12 Shane Gates, 11 Malcolm Jaer, 10 Elgar Watts, 9 Ntando Kebe, 8 Jacques Engelbrecht, 7 Thembelani Bholi, 6 Chris Cloete, 5 JC Astle, 4 Steven Sykes (c), 3 Tom Botha, 2 Martin Bezuidenhout, 1 Schalk Ferreira.

Replacements - 16 Sti Sithole, 17 Martin Ferreira, 18 Vukile Sofisa, 19 Cornell Hess, 20 CJ Velleman, 21 Stephan Willemse, 22 Junior Pokomela, 23 Leighton Eksteen, 24 Theuns Kotze, 25 JP du Plessis, 26 Siyanda Grey.

Morgan Piek/OFM News