There's plenty at stake when the Stormers host the Hurricanes in Cape Town on Friday night.
After last weekend's atrocious performance against the Lions, the home side know that anything less than a convincing victory will not be enough to silence their critics.
Despite that defeat, coach Allister Coetzee hasn't wielded the axe and the return to action of Jaco Taute, who has been on the sidelines since early last season after tearing knee ligaments, is one of only two changes to his starting XV.
Taute at his best is a potent attacking weapon and if he finds the ball in space he could be a handful. Although the entire Stormers squad were below par against the Lions, one man who is saddled with a huge responsibility is flyhalf Demetri Catrakilis.
The Hurricanes showed in last weekend's 27-9 defeat to the Sharks that they have the ability to frustrate their opponents as there were certain elements of the game in which they fought back well against the Sharks.
Their potency lies among their backs where they have four All Blacks – captain Conrad Smith, Cory Jane, Julian Savea and Beauden Barrett – who are all capable of wreaking havoc once they are on the attack.
Stormers – 15 Jaco Taute, 14 Kobus van Wyk, 13 Jean de Villiers (c), 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Gio Aplon, 10 Demetri Catrakilis, 9 Louis Schreuder, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Schalk Burger, 6 Siya Kolisi, 5 Manuel Carizza, 4 Rynhardt Elstadt, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Scarra Ntubeni, 1 Steven Kitshoff.
Subs: 16 Deon Fourie, 17 Oliver Kebble, 18 Pat Cilliers, 19 Michael Rhodes, 20 Nizaam Carr, 21 Nic Groom, 22 Kurt Coleman, 23 Ryno Eksteen.
Hurricanes – 15 Marty Banks, 14 Cory Jane, 13 Conrad Smith (c), 12 Hadleigh Parkes, 11 Julian Savea, 10 Beauden Barrett, 9 TJ Perenara, 8 Blade Thomson, 7 Jack Lam, 6 Faifili Levave, 5 Mark Reddish, 4 Jeremy Thrush, 3 John Schwalger, 2 Dane Coles, 1 Ben Franks.
Subs: 16 Motu Matu'u, 17 Chris Eves, 18 Jeffery Toomaga-Allen, 19 James Broadhurst, 20 Ardie Savea, 21 Chris Smylie, 22 Alapati Leiua, 23 James Marshall.
Predictions for all Round 3 matches
VIDEO: Mark Keohane on this weekend's matches
Bet on Stormers vs Hurricanes match
Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images
