McKenzie unphased by drought
Australia haven't managed to beat the Springboks at Newlands since 1992 but that statistic will be the furthest thing from their minds.
Coach Ewen McKenzie knows that playing the Springboks, at any venue in the world, is always a tough task but playing them in their own backyard makes the job a little tougher.
"They have been at the top of the tree, or close to the top, for a long time. We tend to play them in Durban or in Cape Town when we travel to South Africa but it doesn't matter where you play them, they are a hard team to play.
"The scorelines have been close and it's been a very long time since that unlikely win in 1992. We won't get bogged down in that statistic, we will deal with the circumstances in front of us," he said.
Setpeices are an integral part of any gameplan to afford the team momentum and McKenzie has stated his joy of bringing in Saia Fainga'a who prides himself on that aspect.
"We have recognised setpieces are important which is a particular strength of his [Fainga'a]. It's an area we think we can get a little more consistency in, which will be important in this game.
"His season may not not have panned out the way he would have liked but he's worked really hard to get things back together and this occasion suits him," he added.
The Wallabies will take some confidence into the encounter after they were made to work hard in Perth when they scored a late try to snatch the game from their opponents.
"We had to chase the previous game in difficult conditions but it was a good squad effort to get that reward but we need to do that again.
"It's a different environment, different context, same opposition but different players and we need to start the whole process again," he said.
McKenzie is expecting his troops to improve their away record as he feels they need to become more competitive on the road, especially against the sides ranked above them.
"We haven't been too bad on the road but our aim is to do better against the teams ahead of us [on the rankings] and then staying ahead of them. It's about getting better and being more competitive.
"We've been reasonably successful at home but now we need to get that same success on the road. If you want to win the World Cup then you need to win on the road," he stated.
By Tauriq Ebrahim
