The DHL Stormers host the MTN Lions this evening, in what for the home side will be their 2011 Super Rugby opener.

The weather for Cape Town today is expected to be hot and dry, peaking at 30°C, and we can expect the Rugby to be just as hot.

After losing narrowly to the Bulls in their opening 2011 Super Rugby encounter, Lions mentor John Mitchell has resited the temptation to tweak his side, despite a number of the reserves having a considerable influence after coming on, with James Kamana and Martin Bezuidenhout in particular coming to mind.

The Stormers brains trust have named a largely experienced side for the encounter, with a splattering of youth mixed in.

Alistair Coetzee resisted the temptation to throw the recently returned pivot Peter Grant into the heat of battle first up, prefering to give the youngster Gary van Aswegan his first taste of Super Rugby.

van Aswegan will be ably assisted by the experienced Ricky January at Scrum Half, and with the massive characters of Jean de Villiers and Jaques Fourie as his centre pairing, is sure to settle down quickly.

That of course will be dependant on his having a degree of protection from a Lions loose trio who were very effective and impressive against the Bulls.

Minnie, Strauss and Whitely will do everything they can to unsettle the younster in the opening stanza, and we can expect the Lions brain trust to have instructed the team to bombard the younster with high balls from the off.

The same however can be argued in reverse, with Elton Jantjies also being largly untested at this level. Rest assured that the highly experienced Stormers loose trio of Burger, Vermeulen and Louw will be like leashed bloodhounds straining to be let loose after their extended lay off.

Jantjies had a somewhat indifferent first half last week, and will be eager to show all and sundry (and I’m sure John Mitchell) that he has the credentials to extend his fledgling Super Rubgy (and for that matter International Rugby) carreer.

In order to do so though he’ll need to be far more precise than in the first fourty minutes last week. Any weakness’ will be severly dealt with by the likes of Springboks de Villiers, Fourie, Habana and his namesake Conrad Jantjies.

Other debutants for the Stormers are former Under 21 wing Danie Poolman, who deputises for the still injured Springbok Gio Aplon, and young Second Row forward Rynard Elstadt who is favoured ahead of more experienced campaigners De Kock Steenkamp and Adriaan Fondse, and will lock the Stormers scrum along side Andries Bekker, who returns to Super Rugby after a lengthy injury forced absence.

In the front row, CJ vd Linde returns to Super Rugby at loose head, where Coetzee will be hoping he can add a bit of stability to a front row that will sorely miss the injured Tiaan Liebenberg.

The Lions tight five were adequate against the Bulls, but will surely target what has been traditionally perceived to be a weak spot in the Stormers makeup.

The Stormers bench includes such stalwarts as Dewadt Duvenhage, Peter Grant, Pieter Louw and Juan de Jongh, all of whom should see some game time as the match progresses.

The Lions bench once again looks rather thin in terms of ther backline, with Burton Francis the only real centre named as a reserve.

The Lions mid-field held the Bulls much vaunted backline well last week, with the only real blip being the try of van den Heever, and with the star studded Stormers backline, Doppies le Grance and Waylon Murray will once again have to be on top of their game.

The Lions haven’t won a Super Rugby game since 8^th May 2009 when they beat the Highlanders 27 – 22 in Johannesburg. That’s 659 days ago, but perhaps more telling than that is the fact that they haven’t beaten the stormers in just over a decade.

They last manged to beat the Western Cape outfit in Cape Town on 24^th February 2001. That’s a massive 3654 days ago, and the last year the Lions made the playoffs.

Despite the Lions, and their coach John Mitchell being desperate for a Super Rugby win, playing the Super Rugby champions and runners up on consequetive weekends may well be a bridge too far.

The referee for the game is the experienced, if somewhat controversial (to South Africans) Australian Stuart Dickenson. Let’s all hope he doesn’t spoil or unduly influence the outcome of what should be an absorbing Super Rugby encounter.

We can expect another ding-dong battle with no quarter asked or given, as is the norm in South African Super Rugby derby games, and I’m sure it will be another close affair, but I predict a Stormers win, with the Lions again picking up at least one bonus point for losing by less than 7 points.

Kick off is at 19h10 local time.