Wallabies assistant coach Jim Williams has emphasised the need for Australia's forwards to sharpen their attitude and technique against South Africa next week after they were "out-enthused" by New Zealand in their last Tri-Nations Test.

Australia will tackle the world champion Springboks in Tri-Nations matches in Durban on August 23 and Johannesburg seven days later.

The Wallabies were monstered at the breakdown by New Zealand in Auckland two weeks ago and Williams was keen to address the problems they encountered at Eden Park that night.

In the lead-up to the team's departure, former Wallabies backrower Williams, who is responsible for supervising Australia's breakdown work, showed his forwards video clips of incidents highlighting where they needed to improve.

"We showed some footage, we just got out-enthused, it was a fraction of a second or one or two steps," Williams said.

"They (New Zealand) were just a little bit more desperate.

"The talk is always about being physical, but not so much about the action, it's just a mindset, it's an attitude and a bit of technique that we need to work on.

"I just pointed out that our attitude and being technically very good at the breakdown will get us through there and being physical is just a by-product of that.

"It was just a matter of showing them a few clips here and there and making sure the guys understood where they needed to improve and what they needed to do.

"Things like working hard off the ball and trying to be balanced going into the breakdown and keeping our head up and making sure we maintain or take that space."

Williams said South Africa posed a different type of challenge at the breakdown to New Zealand.

"They (South Africa) are probably technically not the same as New Zealand going into the breakdown, but they use a lot of power," Williams said.

"We've got to make sure that we are there in numbers and working as hard as we can to make sure we secure the ball or try and turn it over like we did against them in Perth.

"We were very good at getting numbers there and competing consistently and we turned over a few balls."

The tour got off to a delayed start with the Wallabies leaving Sydney five hours after their scheduled departure time.

An odour in their aircraft's cabin led to the passengers being required to board a replacement plane.

As a result, the Wallabies were expected to spend the night in Johannesburg after failing to catch a connecting flight to Cape Town.

The unscheduled stop wasn't expected to impact on Australia's preparation as they were not planning to do any serious training until Monday.

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