The Sunwolves head into their final game of the 2017 Super Rugby season against the Blues on Saturday with a side showing four changes from their last run-out.

Head coach Filo Tiatia named his side Thursday following a training season at Tatsumi Rugby Ground at which the temperature reached 32 C as early as 9:30 a.m.

Tighthead prop Koo Ji Won, wing Kenki Fukuoka and the center paring of Timothy Lafaele and William Tupou all come into the side, most of whom returned to Japan on Monday following two big losses in South Africa.

"Some of the players will be given another shot after the Stormers game and some fresh-legged members will be coming in," said Willie Britz, who will once again captain the side from No. 8.

The Sunwolves lost 52-15 to the Stormers last week, following a 94-7 mauling at the hands of the Lions, but Britz said spirits were high.

"Our preparation is going really well," he said. "We will focus on our strong points, our attacking game and fix some things on defense."

"As this is the last game of the season. I really hope it will be a full house at Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium. I really just want to go out there and thank the supporters for their support throughout the whole season by playing good rugby."

Koo starts for the first time in Super Rugby and will line up alongside Koki Yamamoto and Takeshi Hino in the front row.

The rest of the pack is unchanged with Kotaro Yatabe and Uwe Helu in the second row and Britz, Malgene Ilaua and Shuhei Matsuhashi in the back row.

Keisuke Uchida and Yu Tamura remain in possession of the No. 9 and 10 jerseys, respectively, with Lafaele and Tupou in the midfield.

"They had a really good June test series and it's good to have both of them back," Tiatia said of the Coca-Cola Red Sparks teammates.

The starting XV is completed by Fukuoka, right wing Kotaro Matsushima and fullback Riaan Viljoen.

With Keita Inagaki watching training from the sidelines there is still a question mark as to who the reserve loosehead prop is.

Whoever gets the nod will sit on the bench alongside Yusuke Niwai and Yasuo Yamaji with Yuya Odo and Yoshitaka Tokunaga the other back-up forwards.

The three replacement backs are Kaito Shigeno, Jumpei Ogura and Ryohei Yamanaka.

"We still have a large number of injuries in the squad, so the players who got their opportunity this weekend really focused on recovery," said Tiatia.

The Blues, coached by former All Black Tana Umaga, also named their side Thursday and it includes Jerome Kaino, Charlie Faumuina and Ofa Tu'ungafasi, who all appeared for New Zealand in the recently drawn test series with the British and Irish Lions.

Twelve of the Blues starting XV started in the franchise's 22-16 win over the Lions, including Akira Ioane, who was born in Japan while his father Eddie was playing for Ricoh Blacks Rams.

However, Ioane's younger brother Rieko has remained in New Zealand to recover from the illness that forced him to miss the third test against the Lions, while Sonny Bill Williams misses the game as the result of suspension following his red card in the second test.