The defending champions, the Stormers, had a bye during last week’s first round and this has given them some extra time to prepare, while yesterday they also received some Springboks back from the national camp.

While the Stormers are raring to go, the assistant coach, Dawie Snyman, told OFM Sport that they do feel some extra pressure.

“The biggest difference for us is probably having an off-season and preseason. We went straight from a Currie Cup into the URC and took a bit of time for us to get going.

“Now we had time to prepare and fix a few areas of our game and actually work on our own game. 

“Last season is last season and it's great to have a little bit of pressure on us.

“The people are expecting us to play well. We will take it as motivation because we want to take a step forward from where we left off last season.”

Saturday’s game at the Danie Craven Stadium in Stellenbosch kicks off at 14:30.

Morgan Piek/OFM Sport