Bryan Habana and Wicus Blaauw will bolster the Stormers as they battle to pick themselves up ahead of Saturday's do-or-die Super 14 derby against the Bulls at Newlands.
Following their shock setback in Durban last weekend, the return of wing Habana and prop Blaauw will bring a calmness to the semi-final hopeful side who were hopelessly out of sorts against the Sharks.
Both players have passed fitness tests and Tim Whitehead and JD Moller are the ones who make way for the two stand-out performers. Whitehead has made it on to the substitutes' bench, while Moller has been totally discarded.
Along the backline the fit-again Joe Pietersen has been preferred to the mercurial Gio Aplon for the fullback slot. Aplon has been moved to the rightwing berth at the expense of Sireli Naqelevuki, who has been playing the best rugby of his career this season.
In the run-in to Saturday's fixture the Stormers have been trying to address their shortcomings which surfaced in Durban last week.
There has been lots of rainy weather all week in Cape Town and this will pose a further challenge as the Stormers try to improve their ball handling capabilities. Since there is nothing at stake in terms of the result for the Bulls they have made a controversial call to rest several key players.
This will no doubt raise the sense of anticipation in the Stormers' camp.
The Bulls' second-stringers with former Stormers stalwart centre De Wet Barry in tow will want to trump up their claims for inclusion in the play-offs side, apart from the fact that they also bring an unknown factor into the equation.
Stormers:
Joe Pietersen, Gio Aplon, Jaque Fourie, Juan de Jongh, Bryan Habana, Peter Grant, Dewaldt Duvenage, Duane Vermeulen, Francois Louw, Schalk Burger, Andries Bekker, Adriaan Fondse, Brok Harris, Tiaan Liebenberg and Wicus Blaauw.
Reserves: Deon Fourie, Eusebio Guinazu, Anton van Zyl, Pieter Louw, Ricky Januarie, Willem de Waal and Tim Whitehead.
