Cape Town — Western Province are set to be boosted by more senior players ahead of their Currie Cup match with the Cheetahs.
With a doubleheader scheduled for the DHL Stadium on Saturday, when the Stormers also face Munster, the WP side will be able to field those players who will not take part in the United Rugby Championship (URC) match.
Labeeb Levy, the stand-in WP coach, also said that they could make use of some Varsity Cup players on the bench if needed, especially with the Maties campaign in the competition coming to an end.
Maties tighthead prop Corne Weilbach is one of the players who WP had in their sights for earlier in the Currie Cup, but he was unavailable.
In the last double-header weekend, veteran prop Brok Harris had to play two games as a loosehead for the Stormers and tighthead for the WP side as the Currie Cup team did not have a backup to anchor the scrum.
Depending on who Stormers coach John Dobson uses in his Stormers loose trio combination on Saturday, Levy's side could be boosted in this department as well. Junior Pokomela, Marcell Theunissen, Ernst van Rhyn or Gary Porter could strengthen the side with Ruben van Heerden being available for the Stormers again after being cup-tied for the Champions Cup.
Dobson also hinted that No 8 Evan Roos could return in the Currie Cup but it's more likely that the Bok will add firepower to the Stormers pack.
The backline, with the return of Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Angelo Davids and Duncan Saal, also delivered an improved performance on the attack this past weekend in the victory over the Griffons. If Clayton Blommetjies does not feature for the Stormers, he can run out at fullback for the WP against his former team.
The win over the Griffons saw the team jump into the top three on the log without having a full-strength side at their disposal.
According to Levy, they expect a strong Cheetahs side to rock up to Cape Town and his team wants to make up for the loss to Griquas in the double-header last month.
The Stormers entertained the crowd with some great running rugby two weekends ago, but the WP side came unstuck in the late game.
This time around, Province will be the curtain-raiser ahead of the Stormers' URC clash with Munster.
"We will be up against a strong Cheetahs side so we will look for a more improved performance," Levy said.
"They are a different kettle of fish, they will be more organised and a bit more experienced with a higher quality of players. But we will do our homework to bring success.