The New Nation Construction Pumas will be back on the field this weekend when they take on the Lions in the opening match of the season on Friday at 19:00.

Eddie Fouché has fully recovered from his injuries and will start at fly-half for the Pumas. “I feel honoured and privileged to be back in a Pumas jersey. We are ready for our encounter and hope to spoil our supporters with exciting and joyful rugby,” Fouché told Lowvelder.

Eight local unions will each play four matches – two at home and two away – from Friday February 26 until Sunday March 28.

ALSO READ: Pumas’ warm-up encounters to be televised

The series of warm-up encounters has been specifically designed by the rugby department of SA Rugby and the competing unions to meet teams’ high-performance needs against the background of the Covid-19 pandemic, and to prepare the players for the season ahead. Instead of weekly encounters, matches will be played on a ten-day cycle to manage Covid testing protocols. The eight teams have been split into two groups and will play cross-pool matches.

Pool A consists of the Vodacom Bulls, Lions, Tafel Lager Griquas and Toyota Cheetahs, and they will play the four sides in Pool B, namely the Cell C Sharks, DHL Stormers, NNC Pumas and Eastern Province.

Here is the team for the Pumas’ first encounter
1. Morgan Naude
2. Simon Westraadt
3. Ig Prinsloo
4. Brandon Valentyn
5. Pieter Jansen van Vuren (c)
6. Daniel Maartens
7. Ewart Potgieter
8. Willie Engelbrecht
9. Giovan Snyman
10. Eddie Fouché
11. Etienne Taljaard
12. Wayne van der Bank
13. Alwayno Visagie
14. Luther Obi
15. Devon Williams
Subs: 16 AJ le Roux, 17. Liam Hendricks, 18. Dewald Maritz, 19. Le Roux Roets,
20. Kwanda Dimaza, 21. Ginter Smuts,
22. Ali Mgijima, 23. Tapiwa Mafura.

Updated preparation series fixtures (home teams named first, all matches live on SuperSport)

Friday February 26
19:00: Lions vs NNC Pumas

Saturday February 27
17:15: DHL Stormers vs Toyota Cheetahs

Sunday February 28
15:00: Vodacom Bulls vs Eastern Province
17:15: Cell C Sharks vs Tafel Lager Griquas

Tuesday March 9
16:45: Toyota Cheetahs vs Cell C Sharks
19:00: NNC Pumas vs Vodacom Bulls

Wednesday March 10
16:45: Eastern Province vs Lions
19:00: Tafel Lager Griquas vs DHL Stormers

Friday March 19
16:45: NNC Pumas vs Toyota Cheetahs
19:00: Vodacom Bulls vs DHL Stormers

Saturday March 20
14:00: Eastern Province vs Tafel Lager Griquas
16:15: Lions vs Cell C Sharks

Friday March 26
19:00: Cell C Sharks vs Vodacom Bulls

Saturday March 27
15:00: Tafel Lager Griquas vs NNC Pumas
17:15: DHL Stormers vs Lions

Sunday March 28
15:00: Toyota Cheetahs vs Eastern Province.