Springboks skipper John Smit attempts to brush Lions prop Andrew Sheridan aside © Getty Images

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Players/Officials: Peter De Villiers | John Smit

Tournaments/Tours: Tri Nations

Teams: South Africa

Springboks captain John Smit believes the recent series victory over the British & Irish Lions has left his side in the best possible position to claim this year's Tri-Nations crown.

South Africa battled past the Lions in a bruising but brilliant Test series and as a result are favourites to break New Zealand's vice-like grip on the Tri-Nations title. The Boks kick off their campaign against the All Blacks in Bloemfontein this weekend with Smit insisting that the team's preparations could not have gone better.

"The three tough Tests against the Lions have ensured that our preparations this year have been the best yet for the Tri-Nations," said Smit, who will lead his country for a record 59th time at Vodacom Park.

"I think the benefit lies in the fact that in the British and Irish Lions we faced the best of the teams combined that we normally face in the June Tests ahead of the Tri-Nations. If one thinks of the teams that come here at this time of the year, we had good preparation as we beat a Lions team at full strength.

"We haven't won the Tri-Nations trophy for a while. I think we have chosen a strong team that is good enough to compete properly this year."

However, Smit was wary of talking up his side's chances, adding, "It is dangerous to talk about our chances before we've even played out first game. We've got a strong squad, our standards are high, our goals are high, but we can't get too far ahead of ourselves."

Springbok coach Peter de Villiers named an impressive starting XV yesterday, with the only notable absentees being centre Adi Jacobs due to a groin injury and flanker Schalk Burger, currently serving a 12-week ban for 'eye gouging'.

Jaque Fourie has come in for the Sharks midfielder, while Burger has been replaced by Heinrich Brussow, one of the stand-out players against the Lions, with JP Pietersen, Jean de Villiers, Bryan Habana, Ruan Pienaar, Pierre Spies and Bakkies Botha all returning after being rested in the last Test against the Lions.

The selection of fly-half Pienaar remains the most contentious one, considering he replaced Morne Steyn, the Bulls ace who secured the Lions series with his penalty in Pretoria.

"Long may that problem last," added Smit when asked about such selection headaches. "It's simply a wonderful position to be in and I think we are blessed from a South African point of view with the kind of talent that we have at our disposal.

"So it's a good 22 and the guys have a lot of confidence in each other and certainly we will try and make sure that we can follow through with all of that on Saturday."

Meanwhile, De Villiers is cherishing the return to Bloemfontein, the ground that hosted his first Test in charge last year that was won 43-17 against Wales.

Writing in his weekly column on sarugby.net, he said, "Bloemfontein has been a happy hunting ground for Springbok rugby teams down the years and it holds particularly fond memories for me having being the venue for my first Test in charge in 2008."

And the Springbok boss is keen for his troops to make a flying start to the competition by beating the defending champions, who themselves claimed an opening day 22-16 win over the Wallabies last Saturday.

"Getting off to a winning start in the first of three games at home will provide us with impetus and a great platform on which to build in the subsequent matches against New Zealand in Durban and Australia in Cape Town," added De Villiers. "We also need to prove to ourselves and our fans that we can play to our potential and get the very best out of this very talented group of players."

Meanwhile, SA Rugby is still scratching its head about slow ticket sales for the Test. The number of seats sold had crept up today to more than half of Vodacom Park's 48,000 capacity.

Acting managing director Andy Marinos said ticket prices had barely risen in recent years so was investigating other reasons for an apparent lack of interest in the test between the world champion Springboks and world No.1 ranked All Blacks. He said some groups with contractual rights to tickets for the Tri-Nations had not taken up their options.

"It can't be the event -- we have one of the most decorated Springbok teams of all time that has just added a Lions series to a Rugby World Cup title and is very much at full strength with the potential to win the Tri-Nations.," Marinos said.

"Price may well be a factor in these hard times but the fact that people are not taking up the option of paid for tickets would suggest we're seeing something else as well."