They will look to dominate up front and will almost certainly target Australia’s back three after the Pumas profited off Australia’s weak defence under the high ball.

Rennie said his side would not go into their shells but had to fix those failings, flagging an aerial battle at Adelaide Oval.

“You need to kick smart to apply pressure. If you don’t kick, teams just get a big wall in front of you and they knock you over and you run up your own backside,” he said.

“We need a set balance to that ... sometimes you have to be prepared to put the ball in behind them. South Africa are so well organised with their kicking game, they’ll choke you. At times we’ll need to get into a kicking battle and have a crack on the second or third kick when they’ve got a less organised chase line.”

Whether that means Tom Wright will get another shot at fullback or not, remains to be seen. Andrew Kellaway returns from a hamstring injury and was Rennie’s second-choice at No.15 after Tom Banks was injured in the England series. Reece Hodge will be pressing his claim with a booming boot, his size and excellent defence.

Brumbies five-eighth Noah Lolesio is expected to start in the No.10 jersey, with returning playmaker Bernard Foley yet to find his feet at Test level after three years playing professionally in Japan.

South Africa were settling into Adelaide on Monday, while the Wallabies were plotting their moves from the Gold Coast, welcoming back a host of players as well as revered coach Laurie Fisher, who is filling in after the sudden departure of Matt Taylor.

“There’s been a fair bit of poking in the chest, a little bit last night and today. I expect to see a response.”

Dave Rennie

As well as Kellaway, Bell and Alaalatoa, the squad was boosted by the returns of prop Scott Sio, centre Hunter Paisami and flanker Rob Leota. Waratahs back-rower Langi Gleeson is also in camp, alongside the Rebels’ Matt Gibbon and NSW playmaker Ben Donaldson.

Rennie said he was looking at the side’s frustrating run of slow starts.

“We haven’t started well enough, that’s an issue for us and we’re look at what we’re doing there.,” he said. “We’re looking at everything we’re doing. It’s easy to blame players when you get a really disappointing result, but we’re looking at everything,” Rennie said.

“How we’ve prepared them and ensuring that we’re doing every little thing to make sure we’re ready to go on Saturday. We’ve got an outstanding staff and, if you ask the players, they’ll say they’re being well catered for. But you can’t abdicate responsibility when you get a result like that.”

South Africa: Damian Willemse, Warrick Gelant, Lukhanyo Am, Damian de Allende, Makazole Mapimpi, Handre Pollard, Faf de Klerk, Duane Vermeulen, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Siya Kolisi (c), Lood de Jager, Eben Etzebeth, Frans Malherbe, Joseph Dweba, Ox Nche. Res: Malcolm Marx, Steven Kitshoff, Vincent Koch, Franco Mostert, Kwagga Smith, Jaden Hendrikse, Elton Jantjies, Frans Steyn.

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