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John Mitchell

Jacques van der Westhuyzen

JUST three weeks into the new year, and in the middle of summer, and the rugby season is under way. Well, sort of.

The first of several Super Rugby pre-season friendlies will be played in Wellington this afternoon when Boland host the Stormers and for the next three weeks all five of South Africa’s teams will tune-up with matches against each other or slightly weaker opposition.

But it’s not form the Super Rugby coaches will be gauging – they already have a good idea who their best players are and who’ll make up the starting teams when round one arrives – but rather the depth of their squads.

Today’s Stormers team includes only a handful of players who’ll feature regularly in the matchday-22 when the competition starts – among them Gio Aplon, Juan de Jongh, Brok Harris and Nick Koster – with the rest being youngsters hoping to make an impression.

Coach Allister Coetzee, like the other four Super Rugby bosses, needs to know what he has in reserve should injuries knock out some of his first choice men during the season. Only closer to kick off, on the weekend of February 24 and 25, will the coaches narrow down their squads and start picking first choice sides.

While the Stormers follow today’s outing with matches against the Lions and Cheetahs, Naka Drotske has arranged four pre-season games for the men from central South Africa – the most of all the local teams – in an effort to ensure his charges are in peak form from the get-go.

The Cheetahs have struggled in Super Rugby and will be desperate for a better showing in 2012 and perhaps having a busy and challenging pre-season will help them change their fortunes. They face the Southern Kings next weekend before taking on the Griffons, Stormers and Bulls.

And for them, too, creating quality depth will be the main focus of the hit-outs.

John Mitchell of the Lions, fresh off a Currie Cup triumph towards the end of last year, has settled for just two outings before his team kick off their 2012 challenge.

A makeshift side, comprising youngsters and a smattering of experienced hands, will take on the Stormers next weekend before a full-strength side is expected to face the Kings in Port Elizabeth on February 14. With Elton Jantjies nursing a foot injury, Butch James is likely to feature prominently in these matches.

The Bulls, too, will only play two warm-ups – against the Kings and Cheetahs, while the Sharks may be the least battle hardened when they run out properly for the first time as they’ll have an internal trial game before facing Boland and the Kings.

Pre-season friendlies

Bulls: Southern Kings (February 4), Cheetahs (February 11)

Cheetahs: Southern Kings (January 28), Griffons (January 31), Stormers (February 4), Bulls (February 11)

Lions: Stormers (January 27), Southern Kings (February 14)

Sharks: Boland (February 11), Southern Kings (February 18)

Stormers: Boland (today), Lions (January 27), Cheetahs (February 4)