South Africa's Western Stormers may have their best chance for a prestige away win over the ACT Brumbies by fielding an entire backline of Springboks against the injury-hit Super 12 champions in Canberra today.
The Australian king-pins have been battling on without several of their leading Wallabies in the opening weeks of the southern hemisphere rugby tournament, but it will get no easier against the Cape Town-based outfit.
The Stormers, South Africa's best-performing franchise so far, will reunite the outstanding Marius Joubert with fellow Springbok hard man De Wet Barry in the centers where they are likely to face tyros Gene Fairbanks and Joel Wilson.
Joubert was one of five finalists for the IRB player of the year in 2004 after a terrific season where he became only the second Springbok to score a hat-trick of tries against New Zealand's All Blacks in the Tri-Nations.
The Brumbies have done remarkably well to be parked just one point behind competition leaders NSW Waratahs after two spirited wins over the Canterbury Crusaders and Northern Bulls and will have home advantage for the third straight week against the Stormers.
The Stormers have yet to win in Canberra, but they have several match-winners, including fleet-footed winger Breyton Paulse and IRB player of the year and flanker Schalk Burger, back after playing the Asian tsunami match last weekend in London.
The Brumbies will regain Wallaby captain and scrum-half George Greegan and loose-head prop Bill Young, but they will still be without injured Test backs Stirling Mortlock and Matt Giteau and uncapped Wallabies squad member Mark Gerrard.
"The Brumbies have always had good systems and good youngsters coming through and their senior players are leading from the front, so it's always going to be a huge challenge," Stormers coach Gert Smal said this week.
Wallaby centers Nathan Grey and Morgan Turinui have been selected for the Waratahs in tomorrow's match with the seventh-placed Golden Cats in Johannesburg.
The Sydney-based franchise have taken maximum points over the Waikato Chiefs and Coastal Sharks and coach Ewen McKenzie has switched Shaun Berne to fly-half after Lachlan MacKay returned home with a rib injury.
McKenzie moved Berne from inside-center to No.10 rather than start with Tim Donnelly who flew over to replace MacKay.
Cats defensive specialist Brendan Venter said a big challenge awaits Wikus van Heerden's team.
All Blacks captain Tana Umaga will make his return to the unbeaten Wellington Hurricanes on the reserves bench for today's game with the Sharks in Durban.
Umaga suffered an abdominal strain injury during the tsunami match, but the Wellington outfit have plenty of midfield depth and coach Colin Cooper has decided to start with Conrad Smith and Tane Tu'ipulotu.
The Sharks have strongly denied speculation that coach Kevin Putt is headed for a job in New Zealand. Putt has been linked to the Waikato post that is vacant after John Mitchell's decision to take up a Super 14 position in Perth.
All Blacks pair Doug Howlett and Tony Woodcock make their first Super 12 appearances of the season for the Auckland Blues against the Chiefs in Hamilton tomorrow.
The Blues are fourth after wins over Otago Highlanders and Queensland Reds and have made four changes but retained the unfamiliar midfield combination of Sam Tuitupou and Luke McAlister, leaving All Black Mils Muliaina at fullback.
The Queensland Reds will be trying to end a six-match losing streak against the sixth-placed Canterbury Crusaders in Nelson tomorrow after dropping their opening two games, while Bulls skipper Anton Leonard hopes the return of Springbok lock Victor Matfield will spark his team to their first win over the Highlanders in Dunedin today.
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