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Story audio is generated using AI Friday night in Cape Town is going to be a ripper. The All Blacks have big support in Cape Town but the Stormers have even bigger support there. To remind everyone, the Stormers remain the home team even if the tour arrangement requires them to use the visiting change-room. The Stormers, in terms of crowd attendance, averaged the most during Super Rugby’s glory days, and in the United Rugby Championship they lead the South African club quartet and are historically marginally second to Ireland’s Leinster. Stormers coach John Dobson, despite the untimely nature of the fixture, has adjusted his pre-season to get the core of his URC players match-conditioned to play the mighty All Blacks. Dobson says it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for many of the club players. The contrasts in the selections could not be more extreme. You have Yaqeen Ahmed, at 20 years old, making his Stormers debut and you have the grizzly veterans Deon Fourie and Dewaldt Duvenage nearing their 40s. What an occasion for the three of them individually and what an occasion for the city of Cape Town and the Stormers as a club. Western Province, the precursor to the Stormers in club identity, played the All Blacks in 1976. They stunned the All Blacks, with No 10 Robbie Blair kicking a touchline conversion to beat them 12-11. The All Blacks had not lost in 28 matches between 1973 and 1976 until Blair nailed the conversion with the final kick of the game. Blair’s kick has been brought back to life this week – and for good reason. It was history-making, and that has been the narrative from within the Stormers camp all week: the match could be history-making. All Blacks coach Dave Rennie has honoured the occasion with his match 23 selections. While only two of the starting XV that played against Ireland in the Nations Championship start in Cape Town, and seven from the match 23 wear the black jersey in successive matches, he has picked a 23 that boasts 648 Test caps. He has also leaned heavily on this season’s Super Rugby finalists, the title-winning Hurricanes and Chiefs. The two clubs provide 14 of the 23 players. There are 21 Test players in the match 23 and every one of the New Zealand five Super Rugby club franchises is represented. The Stormers have been able to include 14 of the match 23 that played against Leinster in the URC semi-final in Dublin. Significantly, the core of the impressive Stormers starting pack is in action. Excessive ticket prices have dampened enthusiasm within the province and what should have been a sell-out has been a slog. Still, hopefully by 7.10pm on Friday evening, the magnitude of the occasion will have emotionally swayed those who resisted the ticket pricing, and the DHL Stadium will be buzzing with a crowd closer to 50,000 than the 30,000 talked about earlier in the week. Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series, the first full All Blacks tour to South Africa, will be in full swing from Friday night, with the All Blacks playing the Sharks in Durban next Tuesday and the Bulls in Pretoria on Saturday. Then we move into the first of four Test matches against the Springboks: three in South Africa and one in Baltimore, US. Talking of the Springboks, they play the Pumas in Buenos Aires on Saturday night, South Africa time. Rassie Erasmus’s world champions this week seem to have been an afterthought with so much attention focused on the arrival of the All Blacks. But nothing is ever secondary with Erasmus or his Springboks and he has picked a 23 that sees the return of veteran locks Eben Etzebeth and Lood de Jager and double World Cup-winning captain Siya Kolisi. Buenos Aires is where Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu plays for the first time since the URC quarter-final. Feinberg-Mngomezulu is the Stormers’ No 1 flyhalf and, for me, the No 1 flyhalf in South Africa and the world. What a treat it would be for South Africans if he inspires the Boks to a victory in Buenos Aires a day after South Africa under-20 No 10 Ahmed does something remarkable to stun the All Blacks in Cape Town on Friday evening.