Saturday's Super 12 final between the Brumbies and the Sharks will not only provide some entertaining duels between certain players, but will also place the coaches under scrutiny.
It will be a case of the wily old fox in Eddie Jones of the Brumbies pitting his wits against the promising youngster, Rudolf Straeuli. Jones is shading Straeuli in the experience stakes, having taken over as Brumbies' coach in 1998.
Springbok coach Harry Viljoen is a famous member of the Jones fan club and says he is light years ahead of his competitors in terms of innovation. Jones was in the fortunate position that he took over a skilful Brumbies' side that was excellently drilled in their characteristic way of playing the game by Rod Macqueen.
Jones is now in his fourth year with the Brumbies and after the bitter disappointment of last year's heartbreaking defeat to the Crusaders at Bruce Stadium he would want to go one better and win the trophy before taking up the Wallaby coaching position in September.
He had stints with Randwick in 1994, Japan in 1996 and Suntory, a Japanese club team in 1997. He began his rugby career at Matraville High School playing alongside such future Wallabies such as the Ella brothers and former Brumbie David Knox.
Jones represented Randwick, New South Wales and the Australian Barbarians as a hooker and was a schoolteacher and principal before turning to coaching. He fine-tuned his coaching skills in Japan before heading to the Brumbies in 1998 and in 1999 he also coached the Australia A team.
Jones has made a name for himself as a shrewd tactician and one of the leading thinkers in the game.
His opponent on Saturday had an illustrious career as a player before trying his hand at coaching. The 37-year-old Straeuli is a qualified lawyer.
He played No 8 for the Blue Bulls (then Northern Transvaal) from 1984 to 1990 before experiencing rugby life in Italy from 1991 to 1992. Upon his return he joined the Lions (then Transvaal) and played for them from 1993 to 1996.
Straeuli played 23 matches and 10 Tests for the Springboks between 1994 and 1995 and was a member of the Rugby World Cup winning side of 1995.
The following year he again headed overseas, this time to England, where he filled the player/coach position at Bedford between 1996 and 1999. In November 1999 he was appointed head coach of the Border Bulldogs and in June 2000 he joined Natal.
He immediately tasted success when he took the Natal Sharks to the final of the Currie Cup competition, where they lost against Western Province.
This season he was appointed coach of the Sharks and again showed he is capable of scaling great heights when he took the team that finished bottom of the log last year to the final.
On his way there Straeuli caused consternation in the ranks of the Sharks supporters by resting key players for key matches. The first was in the match against the Hurricanes at Absa Stadium a week after his team's great comeback to trounce the Highlanders.
The move paid off, with the Sharks winning comfortably. However, when the Sharks arrived at the important clash with the Reds towards the end of the competition with a team that included 10 voluntary changes, many felt he had overstepped the mark.
Those fears seemed to be confirmed when the Sharks were edged by the Reds and were then hammered by the Crusaders once the frontline players had returned the following week.
But that is history now and the Sharks fans back Straeuli and his boys 110 percent in Saturday's final.
Jones is the more experienced of the two and the Brumbies have the home ground advantage, but the younger Straeuli is one up in head-to-head clashes with Jones. He has proven himself as an astute coach and it won't be too big a surprise if he keeps his record intact on Saturday.