Australia's coaches have made four changes and laid down the law of defensive team discipline on the back of the Wallabies' worst tackling performance in seven years.

While the Wallabies forward play has copped the bulk of criticism from the 32-12 Tri-Nations loss to New Zealand, the whole squad has been admonished for its defence leading into Saturday night's clash with South Africa.

Australia affected an "unacceptable" 77 per cent of its attempted tackles against the All Blacks, the worst success-rate since John Muggleton became full-time defence coach in 1999.

Muggleton, who sets a benchmark of 91 per cent, indicated experienced players weren't shielded from blame for the defensive deficiencies and "very loose" play.

"That (24 missed tackles from 121 made) is well below what we're used to and what we consider to be acceptable," said the former league international, who added up to four tackles were missed at once after individual errors.

"It came back to somebody doing something out of our discipline range and then that had a butterfly effect to put other players in positions than what they're used to.

"We're looking for a more disciplined and a more consistent across-the-park performance this week."

Muggleton was confident the "mental" problem could be immediately rectified against the Springboks at Suncorp Stadium.

"It's a matter of getting their heads back on and getting back to the game plan," he said.

The Wallabies have been listed as 10-point favourites by TAB Sportsbet despite conceding a 30kg weight advantage to South Africa (917kg) in the pack after overlooking giant prop Rodney Blake.

The 130kg tighthead lost a race against time to recover from the ankle injury which has sidelined him for the past two Tests.

Blake was seen as a possible saviour to the wobbly scrum but coach John Connolly didn't want to risk the injury and gave 117kg rookie Guy Shepherdson a chance to bounce back following a tense morning training run.

The Reds prop will now return for Australia A against Fiji in Adelaide on July 21.

Specialist No.8 Scott Fava was told before training he would start his first Test in a reworked back-row.

Mark Chisholm was axed and Rocky Elsom moved from the back of the scrum to blindside flanker to allow a better loose-forward balance around the ground, while sacrificing a fourth lineout jumper.

An excited Fava, 30, rated the news a "step-up" from getting his initial debut on the bench in the UK last November after four seasons on the fringes.

"It's been a lot of hard years to get to this stage so I'm going to make the most of it," he said.

"For a long time I thought I'd never get to this stage."

In the other tough call for Connolly, Matt Giteau's experience and flair was preferred to counter the Springboks fast-rushing defence ahead of a disappointed Mat Rogers at inside centre.

"I thought Mat Rogers had played extremely well during the first four Tests and is very unlucky to miss out," Connolly said.

As expected seasoned hooker Jeremy Paul has replaced the injured Tai McIsaac (ribs), with Queensland hooker Sean Hardman named to play his first Test since his debut in 2002.

Winger Clyde Rathbone will make his return from a hamstring injury on the reserves bench, taking the place of veteran Ben Tune.

The Springboks are missing four first-choice players due to injury in lock Bakkies Botha, centre Jean de Villiers, flyhalf Andre Pretorius and influential flanker Schalk Burger.

Coach Jake White selected a team with two debutants, under-21 star Pierre Spies - a major bolter as a speedy No.8 - and dreadlocked Bulls winger Akona Ndungane.

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