A trip away from Telkom Park has not had happy outcomes for the Mighty Elephants and they will hope for better fortunes when they take on the Falcons at Kempton Park's Barnard stadium on Saturday.
Their last visit to the Falcons nest resulted in a 60-0 drubbing in last years quarterfinals of the Vodacom Cup, but the EP have since beaten their hosts twice, both times at Telkom Park.
EP coach Allister Coetzee is under no illusions about the task ahead, and his side need to get their first Currie Cup win under the belt. EP slipped up last week by only playing to a draw against Boland at Telkom Park in the opening round of the competition and have two points on the log.
The Falcons are sitting pretty, with five points after a convincing win over the Griffons and will hope to cash in on their opponents' poor away form.
EP has last won an away fixture in 1999, but Coetzee has tried a lot of new things to change the mindset of his players when playing away from home.
It could be a classic confrontation between the huge, physical Falcons pack and the speed of the EP backs.
Coetzee believes, though, that his team will have to do the work up front first before running the ball.
"We have to contest our own ball and try and set platforms. I know they have huge strength in their pack, but also have a pretty decent backline to match it. We will have to play at our best and take every chance possible."
Key players for the Falcons will be James Dalton, Braam Els and Etienne Botha. The EP will look at Chad Alcock, Barry Pinnock and Ricardo Loubscher for inspiration.
Meanwhile, Free State eighthman, Tokkie Kasselman, will lead the Cheetahs in their first Currie Cup encounter against neigbouring Northern Free Griffons in the Free State stadium in Bloemfontein on Friday at 6pm.
Revenge
Kasselman takes over the captaincy, with Boela du Plooy still out with injury. The clash with the Griffons will be a good opportunity for the home side to get even with the men from Welkom after the Griffons pulled an upset in the Vodacom Cup competition earlier this season, beating the Cheetahs 21-10 in the Northwest stadium.
Injuries again have played a big role, with Peet Kleynhans and Gysie Pienaar having to finalise the team without stalwarts like Kennedy Tsimba (hamstring), Jimmy Powell (concussion) and Andre van Niekerk (knee). Their names are added to the already long injury list, which includes Friedrich Lombard, Germaine Brinkhuis, Du Plooy and De Wet Oelschig.
Sprinbok-sevens specialist, Helgard Brink (centre) makes his debut for the Cheetahs with Lodie Britz (lock) and Edrick Fredericks also playing their first match for the senior side.
Wylie Human, who played for the Cats in the Super 12-competition, returns to the home side. Prop Daan Human also returns to the side after playing in Italy at the beginning of the season.