The Pumas have had a handful of warm-up matches going into the world’s oldest domestic competition, but there has been no competitive rugby since last year.

The Pumas will travel in round one as they will head to Pretoria to tackle the Bulls on Sunday afternoon.

The coach, Jimmy Stonehouse, told OFM Sport that they expect a tough outing in Pretoria, especially as he feels that the Bulls will be making use of their United Rugby Championship squad.

“Jake white will play his best side on Sunday,” said Stonehouse.

“He will play the URC side coming into the Currie Cup and that will be a tough one for us. But that's the only way we can gauge where we are at moment - if we can measure ourselves against the best.

“The Bulls have been playing in so many games in the URC, we haven't played that and we haven't played at that tempo, so it is going to be a tough one for us.”

Sunday’s match at Loftus Versfeld kicks off at 13:00. Meanwhile, on Friday at 16:00 the Griquas host the Cheetahs in the opening match of the tournament in Kimberley.

Morgan Piek OFM Sport