South Africa will change tactics, moving away from the brutal defensive mode that brought them a historic win against the All Blacks at the weekend, when they face Australia in Perth on Saturday.

Springbok coach Peter de Villiers, addressing a media gathering as his team stepped up preparations for their crucial showdown with the Wallabies, said the men from Down Under presents a very different challenge to their rivals across the Tasman Sea.

The Boks, coming back from a 8-19 loss to the All Blacks in the opening match of the tournament, recorded their first ever win at Carisbrook when they beat the All Blacks 30-28 in Dunedin at the weekend.

The victory, the first time in a decade that the Boks had won on New Zealand soil, was based on rock solid defence and physical dominance at the breakdown.

Wallabies bring new challenges

However, De Villiers believes the Boks will need to be a lot more subtle against the Wallabies — who shy away from contact and play a ball-in-hand, take it through the phases type game.

De Villiers also dismissed the notion that the Wallabies will be a soft touch after the brutal nature of their back-to-back Tests against the Kiwis.

The Bok coach made it clear that his team will change tactics, but said he will keep the true nature of those changes carefully tucked up his sleeve.

"People may think that Australia is not as tough a Test as New Zealand, but that is certainly not the case," De Villiers told the media.

"Australia have other strengths (to New Zealand), which means tactically you have to change and your decision masking requires a different approach.

"We have to change tactics from last week," the Bok coach said.

De Villiers is confident that he has the "players and ability" to deal with the challenge that Australia will be offering... a "very different" challenge.

Taking it up a notch

The Bok coach also said that his team will take it up a few notches from their win at the weekend, even though the Dunedin triumph was one of the more cynical performances in recent years.

"The Boks always strive to be better and there are always areas where we can improve," he said, adding: "Without going into specifics, we will be working on the aspects of our game we feel needs improving."

De Villiers reported that centre Adrian Jacobs received a bump on the leg in the historic encounter against the All Blacks in Dunedin. Jacobs was forced to leave the field in the second half and was replaced by Francois Steyn.

The team will reassess his fitness later in the week.

Prop forward Gürthro Steenkamp received stitches for a cut above the left eye and he too was forced to leave the field before the end of play against the All Blacks. Although swollen, the wound has responded well to treatment and De Villiers said Steenkamp will be considered for selection.

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