In Pretoria, UP-Tuks will be out to restore their dented pride against newcomers FNB Wits, after their last-minute defeat to Maties last week.
The defending champions find themselves in fourth position in the standings after that heart-breaking loss, and they will be focused on taking a full-house of five log points off Wits who are struggling to find their feet in their debut season.
Highly rated flyhalf Handrè Pollard will start in his first match for the home side and many expect that he will invigorate the defending champions. He will be playing at inside centre though, with Willie du Plessis wearing the 10 jersey.
In the Varsity Shield, the FNB TUT Vikings will be looking for their second victory of the competition when they head to Pietermaritzburg to face the FNB UKZN Impi, who recorded a morale-boosting win over Fort Hare in Alice last week.
The FNB Varsity Young Guns competition will shadow the Varsity Cup, with an identical set of fixtures which are set to whet the appetites of the crowds.
There will be three curtain-raisers on Monday, March 4, with UFS-Shimlas meeting NWU-Pukke in Bloemfontein, UP-Tuks taking on Wits in Pretoria and NMMU facing UJ in Port Elizabeth, whilst the UCT and Maties junior sides will do battle directly after the Varsity Cup clash.
The teams are:
UP-Tuks: 15 Clayton Blommetjies, 14 Vainon Willis, 13 William Small-Smith, 12 Handrè Pollard, 11 Courtnall Skosan, 10 Willie du Plessis, 9 Danie Faasen, 8 Jono Ross (captain), 7 Jacques du Plessis, 6 Shaun Adendorff, 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Paul Willemse, 3 Basil Short, 2 Mbongeni Mbonambi, 1 Juan Schoeman. Replacements: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Andrew Beerwinkel, 18 Schalk Van Heerden, 19 Wesley Kotze, 20 Emile Temperman, 21 Riaan Britz, 22 Piet Lindeque, 23 Stephan Pretorius.
Wits: 15 Riaan Arends, 14 Jeremiah Latana, 13 Kayde Fisher, 12 Jared Meyer, 11 Jacques Erasmus, 10 Kyle Peyper, 9 Mathew Torrance, 8 Jason Fraser, 7 Carel Greef, 6 Juan-Pierre Jonck, 5 Charles Baggot, 4 Devin Montgomery (captain), 3 Phakamilu Zuma, 2 Katlego Kgame, 1 Hannes Ludik. Replacements: 16 Rory Anderson, 17 Thato Mavundla, 18 Peter van Biljon, 19 Shai Korb, 20 Joshua Durbach, 21 Greg Blom, 22 Michael Sephton-Poultney, 23 Ferdinand Kelly.
Referee: Jaco Kotze