The Stormers and Cheetahs will enter the next, crucial phase of their Super Rugby pre-season build-up when they meet at Newlands on Saturday.

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The temptation is to label this a battle between the Hunting Cats and the Fat Cats, but that would be unfair.

For one thing this is more of a skirmish than a battle, a warm-up friendly, not full strength, trying it out. But then this friendly could turn out to be tough hammer-and-tongs, the way last week’s friendly between the Stormers and the Lions was – well mannered but hard. And over the years the Men from the Free State have often upset the men from the Western Province, even at Newlands, even in the rain.

Certainly neither side is at full strength, the Stormers far from it and a glance at the Cheetahs’ bench tells you a similar story. But if you believe that rugby football is a young man’s game, that young men play it without fear, then this could be an outstanding match.

Much of the problem with ‘modern rugby’ is the repetition of the predictable as if attack coaches no longer exist, but the Stormers have a young backline primed to attack. It is strange that the Cheetahs, perennial promoters of youth, have a backline that looks older and stodgier than that of their opponents.

But the contest between the two sets of halves could be the key to what happens outside of it – Johan Goosen and Piet van Zyl versus Demetri Catrakilis and Nic Groom.

Such big things are expected of Goosen, already pencilled into Springbok teams with his array of talents, but there is a lot to the determination and skill of Demetri Catrakilis, a Varsity Cup revelation. Piet van Zyl has come quietly into Super Rugby, surprisingly so as Grey College boys as usually so quickly identified. He may have come quietly but his performance is excellent and will need to be so against energetic, bustling, confident Nic Groom of the excellent pass. Van Zyl had lively Sarel Pretorius above him. But Pretorius is now in Sydney.

Outside of the halves, Hennie Daniller, Dusty Noble, Robert Ebersohn, Andries Strauss and Rocco Jansen have more experience than the Stormers back five but there is a lot of life and speed in those young Stormers. You could do worse than back them.

Front row was a problem for the Stormers last year (and the year before that and…) and again last week. They could pick up trouble again this week against the Free State side with props from the Western Cape – WP Nel who went to school at Drostdy in Worcester and Marcel van der Merwe of Paarl Boys’ High. Between them is big Adriaan Strauss, one of the best hookers in the country. He cannot scurry the way Deon Fourie can, but he can scrum.

Forceful Rynhardt Elstadt is back for the Stormers and the Cheetahs have something of an unknown in Andries Ferreira. He did well for the Blue Bulls at age-group rugby before going to Biarritz, the struggling French club, but returned home when his father became ill. The Cheetahs are bolstered in the line-out by loose forwards Davon Raubenheimer and Philip van der Walt.

The loose forward contest could be really interesting. Heinrich Brüssow, strong, fearless, relentless is always interesting and so is Schalk Burger, a rare Springbok in recent years in that he has made progress as a player. With experienced Burger are two young men of creative talent in Nizaam Carr and Siya Kolisi.

Each side has had a game or two so far this season. The Stormers – with their second string that beat Boland and then their A-Team which recorded a big (28-6) win over the Lions – had a much better start than the Cheetahs, who scored an iffish 33-20 win over a pick-up team from Border and South Western Districts. But then they are new teams this week.

Last Friday, the Stormers conceded 18 penalties, 13 of them tackle-related. That’s prodigal.

Prediction: The Stormers may have their shortcomings, but they look a solid all-round unit. The Cheetahs always start slowly… and the Stormers should win – by about 10 points.

The teams:

Stormers: 15 Gerhard van den Heever, 14 Danie Poolman, 13 JP du Plessis, 12 Marcel Brache, 11 Ederies Arendse, 10 Demetri Catrakilis, 9 Nic Groom, 8 Nizaam Carr, 7 Siya Kolisi, 6 Schalk Burger (captain), 5 De Kock Steenkamp, 4 Rynhardt Elstadt, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Deon Fourie, 1 Deon Carstens.
Replacements – from: Siyabonga Ntubeni, Steven Kitshoff, Brok Harris, Eben Etzebeth, Don Armand, Nick Fenton-Wells, Rohan Kitshoff, Johannes Conradie, Kurt Coleman, Michael van der Spuy, Berton Klaasen.

Cheetahs: 15 Hennie Daniller, 14 Dusty Noble, 13 Robert Ebersohn, 12 Andries Strauss, 11 Rocco Jansen, 10 Johan Goosen, 9 Piet van Zyl, 8 Davon Raubenheimer, 7 Philip van der Walt, 6 Heinrich Brüssow, 5 Izak van der Westhuizen, 4 Andries Ferreira, 3 WP Nel, 2 Adriaan Strauss (captain), 1 Marcel van der Merwe.
Replacements – from: Ryno Barnes, Lourens Adriaanse, George Earle, Ashley Johnson, Marnus Hugo, Sias Ebersohn, Willie le Roux, Philip Snyman, Ryno Benjamin, François Uys.

Date: Saturday, February 4
Kick-off: 17.00 SA Time (15.00 GMT)
Venue: Newlands, Cape Town
Referee: Craig Joubert
Assistant referees: Matt Kemp, Marc van Zyl