The home side at the Cape Town Stadium has been drawn, intriguingly, with the respective Series winners and runners-up from last season, Fiji and the United States, in Pool A - it also features an invitational Japan side.

With one of the three – who all finished in the top four of the 2019 series to book their place at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games – certain to miss out on the Cup quarter-finals, there will be no room for error, with Fiji not wanting to miss out on the top eight for the second round running.

"It is a big pool and you can't throw away Japan, I think they are a team that can also play well on their day," South Africa coach Neil Powell said.

"It will be a tough pool - if you look at the pool, it is one, two and four from last season's seedings.

But maybe that is something we needed to get a good challenge and, if we can get through it nicely, it will build character.

"Hopefully it is a good weekend for us and we will take it one game at a time - our focus is on the first game on Friday night against Japan."

Pool B in the second round of Series 2020 features Dubai runners-up New Zealand, Argentina, Canada and Wales, while Pool C has a European flavour with bronze medallists England paired with France, Spain and Scotland.

Samoa, Australia, Ireland and Kenya make up Pool D, which will start the men's competition tomorrow with the match between Australia and new core team Ireland.