After last week’s epic 30-28 victory at the House of Pain, the Springboks must come back down to earth and focus on an altogether different challenge against a sharp-looking Wallaby side in Perth on Saturday.

The Boks - who regained their No.1 ranking after their first win in New Zealand for ten years - face a Wallaby side under the guidance of arguably the best coach in the world, Robbie Deans.

Ryan Kankowski, Peter Grant and Tendai Mtawarira are the new men on the bench, while Pierre Spies, Francois Steyn and Conrad Jantjes all make a welcome return to the Springbok team. Jantjes has been preferred to Percy Montgomery, who drops out of the match 22 altogether, which I believe suits the playing conditions.

Steyn replaces Adi Jacobs, who is injured, at outside centre, which can only bolster this team further. Joe van Niekerk also fails to crack the match 22. Luke Watson has also been left in the cold where he belongs.

The Boks are looking good and they should go into the match as favourites and have everything going for them. But they will know too well that, with the tag of world champions around their necks, all and sundry will be out to knock them over. Australia are no different and historically their clashes with South Africa have always been tight, feisty affairs.

Australia pose a different test to the Boks. They are widely regarded as the most cerebral side in world rugby, and always seem to be very impressive on attack and have a gift for building phases with relative ease. Nathan Sharpe, Lote Tuqiri and Wycliff Palu all return from injury lay-offs, and reclaim their respective places in the starting XV. Six Wallabies will also face the Boks for the first time.

Boks coach Peter de Villiers also admitted this week that his side would go into the game rather cold as far as what game plan the Wallabies intend implementing. This is because they are a new side under new mentorship and are looking to mix their strengths with Deans’ Crusader-style play which proved so successful for him in Super Rugby.

Matt Giteau at fly-half is the vital cog in their side and he is a potential match-winner. He showed in their recent Test matches against the Irish and French what a danger he can be, and if the Boks are going to be successful come Saturday evening they will have to subdue the million dollar-earning man from the Western Force.

Last week’s match-winning hero, Ricky Januarie, is just the man for the job. He was rather effective at disrupting the All Blacks half-backs last week and is seen as an absolute pest by his opponents. With the injury to John Smit and a suspension for Bismarck du Plessis, Schalk Brits will be the man tasked with feeding into the line-outs and fronting up in the engine room. Brits will also add a much better attacking option to the Boks in broken play through his silky ball skills and running ability. Aussie lock Nathan Sharpe has spoken of targeting Brits in the line-out and believes the Boks may struggle without their regular hookers.

Dan Vickerman has failed to recover from injury and James Horwill will partner Sharpe in the locking role. The loss of Vickerman is a big blow as he is the main challenger to the Boks line-out weapon.

De Villiers has spoken of trying to implement a more expansive game into the Boks' play, and with the returning Spies and Kankowski in the mix, this is clearly the case with the latter desperate to prove he is the world's in-form No.8.

The Boks must, however, be careful not to get sucked into playing a loose, free-flowing game the Wallabies love. They must play to their pace, build a platform, keep the scoreboard ticking over and only then should they launch an attacking game and look to give the ball air.

Prediction: The Boks’ scrum was impressive last week and they should have the edge on the Wallabies in the front row in particular. However, there is some doubt about Brits' credentials in this area. Victor Matfield must also show his big-match temperament and command the line-outs the way he did last week.

The Boks defended superbly against the All Blacks, but they must be careful not to allow the Wallabies too much possession in their own half as they are a dangerous side on the attack. The Boks also have a tendency to go into their shell and defend for long periods of the game. If they are forced to make more tackles than the Wallabies, which seems likely going according to history, the game should be a tight affair. Boks to win by eight.