For the Free State, it will be their first game of the campaign, while the Bulls had to settle for a 20-5 defeat to Western Province at Newlands in Cape Town last week.

The Bulls will be wanting to set the record straight, and the Cheetahs will have to hit the ground running.

The Cheetahs do have quite a lot of experience as they weren’t overly interrupted with players leaving the union this past season.

Of the 23 players in the squad, it is only the replacement scrumhalf, Dian Badenhorst, who does not have Pro14 experience.

While the team has plenty of experience in the competition which is contested in South Africa, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales, only a handful of players have more than ten caps in the Currie Cup.

The locks, Walt Steenkamp and Sintu Manjezi, as well as the outside back, Darren Adonis, will also be on debut for the Cheetahs. Manjezi has previously represented the Griquas in the Currie Cup.

The team welcomes the return of the Springbok loosehead prop, Ox Nche, who has completed his suspension he picked up in the Pro14 against Leinster.

Last season the Cheetahs lost every single one of their games in the Currie Cup and were forced to play in a promotion-relegation match against the SWD Eagles.

The captain, Tian Meyer, told OFM Sport that with the added experience this season, they will do a lot better than this time a year ago, but there are a few areas on their game which they want to improve on.

“Gelling as a team would be great. We have worked so hard during the off-season and the guys are getting to know each other a lot better.

“We are getting to identifying space on the field a lot better as well. It makes a big difference and we will keep working on that.

“Execution is always key as well. That we will only see in the Currie Cup itself because needless to say the competition is a lot different to preseason training.”

With reference to the preseason training, Meyer believes that they will see the rewards for the hard work done off the playing field.

“It was nice just playing, but it also nice knowing that we have the reference of working so hard during the off-season on certain things that we haven’t had the chance to work on before.

“An off-season gives you a chance to sharpen your skills. We had a lot to work on, and we never got the time to do that.

“We had to learn lessons during the Pro14, and now we actually had the time to sharpen our skills.”

Friday nights’ clash at Loftus Versfeld kicks off at 19:15.

Blue Bulls -15 Divan Rossouw, 14 Cornal Hendricks, 13 Johnny Kotze, 12 Burger Odendaal (captain), 11 Rosko Specman, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Embrose Papier, 8 Tim Agaba, 7 Roelof Smit, 6 Ruan Steenkamp, 5 Andries Ferreira, 4 Ruan Nortje, 3 Wiehahn Herbst, 2 Jaco Visagie, 1 Simphiwe Matanzima.

Replacements - 16 Johan Grobbelaar, 17 Dayan van der Westhuizen, 18 Conraad van Vuuren, 19 Jean Droste, 20 Marco van Staden, 21 Ivan van Zyl, 22 Marnitz Boshoff, 23 Dylan Sage.

Toyota Free State Cheetahs - 15 Louis Fouché, 14 William Small-Smith, 13 Benhard Janse van Rensburg, 12 Dries Swanepoel, 11 Rabz Maxwane, 10 Tian Schoeman, 9 Tian Meyer (captain), 8 Henco Venter, 7 Abongile Nonkontwana, 6 Junior Pokomela, 5 Walt Steenkamp, 4 Sintu Manjezi, 3 Aranos Coetzee, 2 Joseph Dweba, 1 Ox Nche.

Replacements – 16 Jacques du Toit, 17 Charles Marais, 18 Reinach Venter, 19 JP du Preez, 20 Jasper Wiese, 21 Gerhard Olivier, 22 Dian Badenhorst, 23 Darren Adonis.

@MorganPiek OFM Sport