The Springboks will be looking to play mind games with the masters when they take on the all-conquering Wallabies in a Tri-Nations Test at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Saturday.

Australia have never travelled well to South Africa, and their last adventure at Loftus turned into a nightmare, losing by 61-22, a record margin.

History and the resulting psychology within the ranks of rugby plays as large a role as form. The All Blacks proved that when they defeated the Springboks at Newlands last week - their fifth win out of seven in the Mother City.

And the same All Blacks will try to play down their Ellis Park hoodoo made famous in the World Cup final in 1995.

The French have also never lost at Ellis Park while they have never won in Durban - a statistic which bore fruit in the team's recent 1-1 series draw against the Boks.

Australia have never defeated the Boks in consecutive Test matches in South Africa since 1963 and after last year's 19-18 triumph in Durban they will be keen to set the record straight.

The Aussies have played the Boks 48 times, winning 17 and losing 31, with no match ending in a draw. But the Aussies have won their last four encounters against the Boks - at Twickenham, in Melbourne, Sydney and Cape Town - so for their part the Boks will be extra motivated to end that sequence.

The Boks last win was a 10-9 victory secured in the rain at Newlands in 1999. The Australians are so obsessed with finding the solution to the altitude and jetlag problem that they sometimes forget to focus on the primaries and this may just hand South Africa a slight advantage, especially on the Highveld.

The Australians pride themselves on their sports science innovations but as yet are still experimenting. This time out they arrived in Johannesburg on Tuesday, before heading off to stay in Pretoria.

The Boks have named an relatively inexperienced side to take on the world champions with Conrad Jantjes set to make his first start in the Green and Gold at fullback.

Another three players - Lukas van Biljon, Johan Ackermann, Butch James and Dean Hall - have yet to face the Aussies in a Test while on the bench Johann van Niekerk has not even played Super 12.

The Aussies have gone for their strongest, most experienced team with only flyhalf Stephen Larkham out with injury.

Perennial Bok protagonists Matthew Burke, John Eales, Daniel Herbert, Joe Roff, George Gregan and Toutai Kefu are all in and they will be looking to make some history.