After enjoying an unbeaten start under Joe Schmidt, the Wallabies know they'll need to shift up the gears to beat a South African side under immense pressure not to slip up against the ninth-ranked hosts in Brisbane on Saturday.
Springboks great Jean de Villiers has been stirring the pot in the lead-up, warning South Africa have "everything to lose" against their lowly-ranked rivals and declaring Schmidt incapable of reviving Australian rugby's flagging fortunes.
"Joe Schmidt is the man to improve Australian rugby but will he get them back on track to where they were in those golden years? I don't think so," de Villiers told the Boks Office podcast.
"Because it's not him. It's the structure, it's the whole organisation that I feel is not functioning.
"You throw away the (Western) Force and you get the (Melbourne) Rebels back in, and then you bring the Force back and now the Rebels have gone."
Friday Focus 🫡— Wallabies (@wallabies) 🗓� Saturday 10 August🦘 Wallabies v South Africa 2:30pm AEST�� Suncorp Stadium📺 @stansportau | @channel9 | @9now#Wallabies | #TRC | #ThisisQueensland | #VisitBrisbane pic.twitter.com/GKjgGGPIcvAugust 9, 2024
Dismissing the trash talk, which also included the former Boks captain saying Australia "are not even in the top-eight conversation", Wallabies skipper Allan Alaalatoa insists his side won't be distracted by external criticism.
"Internally there's a lot of belief in our coach and we don't need to listen to what other people have to say about our group," Alaalatoa said at Friday's captain's run at Suncorp Stadium.
"There's always pressure going into a Test match but we have always, as a group and with our coaching staff, brought the focus back to ourselves.
"It's about understanding the good things that we've displayed in the July series and the reason why we won those games and those are the things that we want to continue to build on.
"And it's probably the best arena to put that to work."
Indeed, South Africa were also world champions and hot favourites when they arrived three years ago for their most recent match in the Queensland capital.
The departed 30-17 losers after falling for a third time in as many meetings with the Wallabies at their Brisbane fortress over the past six years.
The Wallabies suffered a setback during the week when powerhouse prop Taniela Tupou was ruled out following the death of his father.
The captain, though, is backing Tupou's replacement front-rower Zane Nonggorr to fill the massive void.
Zane Nonggorr drives the Queensland Reds forward during the Super Rugby Pacific season. (Darren England/AAP PHOTOS)
"Zain, he's been huge for us in the past," Alaalatoa said.
"Like he's played against South Africa over there in a tough arena, so he's gotten a few games under his belt but, most importantly, he's got experience against great, great quality teams."
Chasing a first Rugby Championship trophy since 2019, the Springboks pulled a selection surprising in naming 22-year-old Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu as five-eighth.
But coach Rassie Erasmus cautioned the doubters that Feinberg-Mngomezulu "is starting at No.10 and No.10 is pivotal in every Test match, but he is somebody we know well".
"He is not someone who has just fallen into our system."
The rare day Test kicks off at 2.30pm, with the All Blacks hosting Argentina later on Saturday in Wellington in the other first-round encounter.
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