Wallabies set piece coach Andrew Blades says Australia must ramp up their physicality from their passive effort against New Zealand to meet the huge challenge presented by the Springboks.

Australia are bottom of the Rugby Championship after failing to win either of their first two matches against the All Blacks.

An encouraging 12-12 draw in Sydney was followed by a demoralising 50-21 caning at Eden Park in Auckland last week.

After having this weekend off, Australia play home games on successive Saturdays against South Africa in Perth and Argentina on the Gold Coast.

The Springboks won their two games against the Pumas by a combined total of just nine points.

“Very strong scrums, two massive sides especially in the forwards,” Blades told AAP about the Wallabies’ next two opponents.

“Two very physical sides around the breakdown and that will be the biggest challenge.

“They challenge every breakdown and the Springboks have people at every breakdown trying to mess things up.

“It’s going to be a huge physical challenge for us and we’ve got to be up for it.”

Blades felt Australia were too passive in the contact areas in Auckland and needed to rediscover the physicality they displayed during their eight-match unbeaten run prior to last weekend’s loss.

“I think we dropped down our level of physicality which we had in the first Test (against New Zealand),” Blades said.

“Our line speed wasn’t as good, our maul defence wasn’t as aggressive as it had been. Those areas of the game dropped down and we paid the price for it.”

Former Test prop Blades felt the always heavily scrutinised Australian scrum had generally performed well this season, apart from struggling in Auckland when lock Rob Simmons was sin-binned and hooker Nathan Charles was injured.