The tournament in Bloemfontein will feature the Cheetahs as well as the Griquas, while overseas the Emerging Ireland team, Italy A and USA National A will also be competing.

Pienaar played in the tournament last year, but played against the Cheetahs while he was on loan at the Sharks.

The seasoned Springbok told OFM Sport that it was strange playing against his own team.

“It's nice to play for your own team again, it was a bit awkward last year.

“It's great preparation for us going into December. Those are going to be really big fixtures for us being back in Europe and playing against strong opposition. But we're just looking forward to playing rugby again.

“It's been a really tough preseason and I think that we have worked really hard. The coaches and some of the senior players, at the end of last season, tried to identify areas where we need to improve and get stronger.

“We've done that over the last six weeks. It was really tough but I'm looking forward to it. It probably is getting close to the end for me now, so I'm just looking forward to playing rugby again.

“There are a lot of exciting players in the team and we are all just looking forward to get back to playing again.”

On 30 September the Griquas tackle the Irish at 13:45 and at 16:15 the Cheetahs face Italy A at the Toyota Stadium.

Fixtures:

Friday, 30 September 2022:

13h45: Griquas vs Emerging Ireland

16h15: Cheetahs vs Italy A (Toyota Challenge match)

Wednesday, 5 October 2022:

17h00: Pumas vs Emerging Ireland

19h00: Griquas vs Italy A

Sunday, 9 October 2022:

11h00: Pumas vs Italy A

13h00: Cheetahs vs Emerging Ireland (Toyota Challenge Match)

Friday, 14 October 2022:

18h00: Cheetahs vs USA (Toyota Challenge Match)

Friday, 21 October 2022:

13h45: Pumas vs USA National A

16h15: Cheetahs vs Griquas (Toyota Challenge Match)

Morgan Piek/OFM Sport