They boast the best current winning streak in world rugby but a drought-breaking win at Suncorp Stadium would mean much more to a Springboks outfit who can’t explain their terrible record in eastern Australia.
South Africa are No.2 in the world and coming off nine straight victories dating back to November but they are $2.40 underdogs against the Wallabies who have won just one of their five Tests this year.
The main reason for that is their winless record at Brisbane’s former Lang Park where Australia have been an average 20-point better side than them over seven meetings.
The Wallabies’ love for the ground was highlighted by their 2009 upset of the then world champion Boks when they scored a resounding 21-9 win at Suncorp.
It was Australia’s only Tri-Nations’ win that season and top-ranked South Africa’s only loss.
Halfback Ruan Pienaar played in that boilover, as well as the 30-13 thumping a year later, and knows the difficulty of winning in Brisbane but can’t fathom exactly why.
“I don’t think you can put your finger on that,” 68-Test Pienaar said.
“For us, we take a lot of pride in playing back home and I think it’s the same for Australia – they want to put in a big performance before their home crowd.”
Wallabies players rate Suncorp their favourite place to play due to the atmosphere and energy they get from the 52,500-seat rectangular stadium.
Pienaar said a hoodoo-busting victory on Saturday night would be a massive confidence-booster for the Boks in their second season under coach Heyneke Meyer.
“I know the record isn’t great but I think that’s the exciting thing now for this group now,” he said. “If you want to grow as a group and go forward you would like to get a result here.
“We are a fairly young squad … so this would be a massive step in the right direction.”
South Africa’s record is no better in Sydney, either, with the Boks losing all 13 of their Tests against the Wallabies played on the east coast since the code went professional in 1996.
But the Boks have lost only once to Australia at latitude on South Africa’s Highveld in the same time, the Wallabies breaking a 47-year drought with Kurtley Beale’s monster penalty goal at Bloemfontein in 2010.
“At home on the Highveld, it is more of a continuity game and you get that continuity,” Meyer reasoned.
“Away from home it is more of a contesting game where you get the teams contesting every single lineout, so we have to be disciplined.”