Peter Engledow named a fairly experienced team on Thursday for their season opener.

Upfront Wendal Wehr and the hooker, AJ le Roux, have already represented the Peacock Blues on fifty occasions already. While Sias Koen and De Kruger are seasoned campaigners already.

Engledow’s backline also have quite a lot of experience with the winger Ederies Arendse and Enver Brandt having played their fair share of games and between them have already crossed the try line on more than fifty occasions throughout their careers.

Pieter van Vuren will captain the team from the second row.

Andre Swarts  has recovered from his preseason surgery and will slot in at flyhalf for the match. He will form the halfback combination with Louis Venter who will be on debut after joining the side from the Griffons.

The bench see numerous new faces and this includes the former Griffons, Khwezi Mkhafu and Ruan Kramer, as well as, Pieter-Steyn de Wet from the Southern Kings, Tythan Adams from the Sharks and Paarl Boys' High educated Namibian international, Damian Stevens. Stevens was also on the Sharks books.

Engledow told OFM Sport that they expect a tough outing and want to start their campaign with a bang.

“The Sharks are always difficult, they’ve got a good team and they had a fantastic win over the Pumas and they are going to be tough opponent first up. So, we’re straight into it.

“The advantages are we at home. We love playing at home and it’s difficult to beat us in Kimberley.

“We are super excited. We want to get going and start off with a bang.”

Saturday’s match at Tafel Lager Park kicks off at 15:00. At the same time the Leopards host the Griffons in Schweizer-Reneke and the Toyota Free State XV enjoy a first round bye.

Griquas -  15 Eric Zana, 14 Ederies Arendse, 13  Kyle Steyn, 12 Christopher Bosch, 11 Enver Brandt, 10 André Swarts, 9 Louis Venter, 8 De Wet Kruger, 7 Sias Koen, 6 Wendal Wehr, 5 Pieter van Vuren (captain), 4 Jono van Rensburg, 3 Nicolaas Oosthuizen, 2 AJ le Roux, 1 Liam Hendricks.

Replacements – 16 Khwezi Mkhafu, 17 Ruan Kramer, 18 Wandile Putuma, 19 Conway Pretorius, 20 Damian Stevens, 21 Pieter-Steyn De Wet, 22 Tythan Adams.

Morgan Piek OFM Sport