Cape Town - The Stormers surprised with the inclusion of Ederies Arendse at wing for their pre-season clash against the Cheetahs at Newlands on Saturday.

Die Burger newspaper reports that on days when Arendse needs to be at WP's High Performance Centre, he spends at least three hours back and forth in taxis from his home in Lentegeur in Mitchells Plain to the team's training base in Bellville.

And Arendse's commitment to training has impressed the Stormers coaches to such an extent that he will find himself wearing Bryan Habana's No 11 jersey for Saturday's clash.

Arendse plays for WP club SK Walmers and has played one friendly game for Western Province. He is expected to play a big part for WP in this year's Vodacom Cup.

"If Ederies can play open a permanent spot in the Stormers team then it will be a modern-day rugby fairytale," said Labeeb Levy, the WP Vodacom Cup team's assistant coach.

Levey, a former coach of Collegians, has walked a long road with the 21-year-old Arendse.

"Ederies was according to me the best winger in Cape club rugby last year. He can finish off when there's space and is gutsy on defence," said Levy.

"It's unrealistic to think that he could play for the Stormers against the Hurricanes on February 25, but he will learn a lot from his involvement with the group.

"Ederies is getting good coaching and the conditioning will help him a lot if he stays involved at the Stormers' structures.

"My message to him is that he only has his toe in the door. There are 30 000 other players in the Cape that would love to be in his position."

Arendse impressed in the pre-season fitness tests and also recently played for the Stormers in their warm-up game against Boland.

Teams:

Stormers:

15 Gerhard van den Heever, 14 Danie Poolman, 13 JP du Plessis, 12 Marcel Brache, 11 Ederies Arendse, 10 Demetri Catrakilis, 9 Nic Groom, 8 Nizaam Carr, 7 Siya Kolisi, 6 Schalk Burger (captain), 5 De Kock Steenkamp, 4 Rynhardt Elstadt, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Deon Fourie, 1 Deon Carstens.

Substitutes: 16 Siyabonga Ntubeni, 17 Steven Kitshoff, 18 Brok Harris, 19 Eben Etzebeth, 20 Don Armand, 21 Nick Fenton-Wells, 22 Rohan Kitshoff, 23 Bolla Conradie, 24 Kurt Coleman, 25 Michael van der Spuy, 26 Berton Klaasen

Cheetahs:

TBA

Referee: Craig Joubert