South Africa arrived in Australia knowing it must change history in Brisbane to stand a chance of staying in the Tri Nations race this year.
Fresh from back-to-back defeats to New Zealand, the Springboks complete the away leg of their campaign against a fresh Australia side in a city where they have failed to register a win in six matches played there since the competition began in 1996.
"We need to pick ourselves up now," admitted centre Jaque Fourie. "We've had two tough games and it doesn't get easier playing Australia in Brisbane.
"We always struggle there. It's going to be difficult. We need to get a win there to get our campaign off the ground then we can go back home with a lot of confidence and start the home leg."
The South African starting XV last weekend boasted a whopping 700 caps and Fourie said the group would need to call on all that experience to turn around the disappointing 12-32 and 17-31 losses of the past two weeks.
"We need to use that experience to the best of our advantage. The last two games we've played against New Zealand we've been a bit flat-footed," he said.
"We need to play with the ball more, starve [Australia] of possession and get more clinical at the breakdown.
"We lost a lot of ball at the breakdown and you can't play without the ball. We need to rectify all that."
After two physically draining encounters against the All Blacks, Victor Matfield is expecting more of the same from the Wallabies who have had the past three weeks to build towards their competition opener while their rivals have been bashing lumps out of each other.
"Everyone always talks about the Australians not being as physical but I think that's probably 20 or 30 years back," the imposing lock said.
"Some of my hardest games have been against Australia and Aussie teams."