Robert Ebersohn and David Brits will patrol the midfield in the game, while Reinhard Fortuin and Ruan Pienaar will form the halfback combination.

Ebersohn and Pienaar bring a wealth of experience to the team after both plied their trade in France for many years.

Fortuin earns his start as the backline marshal with Masuku and Steyn unavailable due to injury.

Gideon van der Merwe will start at flank and this will be the first time that he is in action in the European Challenge Cup after sufficiently recovering from a long-term knee injury.

In the front row, Marnus van der Merwe, has done enough to earn the number two jersey ahead of Marko Janse van Vuuren and the Namibian international, Chucky van der Westhuizen.

On the bench the Cheetahs have opted to go for a six-two split with two loose-forwards in Daniel Maartens and Sibabalo Qoma among the replacements.

The coach, Hawies Fourie, told OFM Sport that Gideon van der Merwe will be a valuable player.

“I knew at that time that if Gideon could get through 40-minutes against the Griquas that he would be ready to be selected for the Toulon game.

“He will be important for us especially he and Jeandré Rudolph at the breakdown trying to get turn-overs, slowing the ball down while and give up time to set our defence and to get off our line.

“He has got an important role to play and I'm just glad that he recovered well enough and that he played well enough in the previous three games so that we would select him for the tour.”

Saturday’s game at Stade Mayol kicks off at 13:30.

Toulon - 15 Thomas Salles, 14 Jiuta Naqoli Wainiqolo, 13 Jérémy Sinzelle, 12 Waisea Vuidravuwalu, 11 Aymeric Luc, 10 Dan Biggar, 9 Benoit Paillaugue, 8 Sergio Parisse, 7 Facundo Isa, 6 Jules Coulon, 5 Adrian Warion, 4 Swan Rebbadj, 3 Kieran Brookes, 2 Teddy Baubigny, 1Bruce Devaux.

Replacements – 16 Christopher Tolofua, 17 Dany Priso, 18 Beka Gigashvili, 19 Matthias Halagahu, 20 Mathieu Bastareaud, 21 Jules Danglot, 22 Maëlan Rabut, 23 Ihaia West.

Cheetahs - 15 Tapiwa Mafura, 14 Dan Kasende, 13 David Brits, 12 Robert Ebersohn, 11 Munier Hartzenberg, 10 Reinhardt Fortuin, 9 Ruan Pienaar, 8 Jeandré Rudolph, 7 Oupa Mohoje, 6 Gideon van der Merwe, 5 Victor Sekekete (captain), 4 Rynier Bernardo, 3 Hencus van Wyk, 2 Marnus van der Merwe, 1 Schalk Ferreira.

Replacements – 16 Marko Janse van Rensburg, 17 Alulutho Tshakweni, 18 Mox Mxoli, 19 Mzwanele Zito, 20 Daniel Maartens, 21 Siba Qoma, 22 Rewan Kruger, 23 Cohen Jasper.

Morgan Piek OFM Sport