The Wallabies will hope to bring a little bit of Brisbane to the South African high veld when they attempt to break their duck in Pretoria in a high stakes Test match against the Springboks on Saturday (0100 Sunday AEST).

The Tri-Nations may be gone for both sides but the world champion Boks haven't won in four games in the series and the Australians in more than 40 years at altitude in the Republic.

It was 1963 when the Wallabies last tasted victory on the 1,300m plateau, while Australia's record at Loftus Versfeld stands at 0-4.

But their impressive 30-13 win at Suncorp Stadium last month has the Wallabies believing they have the ball-in-hand game-plan to finally bust their long-standing hoodoo.

"The way we beat them was important, not necessarily because of the amount of tries we scored or the points we scored, it's just the method that was pretty clear to everyone," captain Rocky Elsom said.

"Saying that because we beat them it's going to be easier to beat them again, it won't be worth much if we don't apply ourselves.

"Having that experience of how the plan worked in the past does help.

"We can't expect it to go exactly like it did in Brisbane, this is a different environment, but it doesn't matter where you are, we know what serves us best and we've got to try and do that regardless of what they throw at us."

What they throw at the Wallabies will be plenty if last weekend's heartbreaking loss in an epic against the All Blacks is any indication.

Add inspirational lock Victor Matfield's 100th Test on his beloved home ground and there will be no shortage of attitude.

"They'll be a bit grumpy at that (loss to NZ) and they'll be looking to take it out on us no doubt," Wallabies coach Robbie Deans said.

"There's no doubt that the lungs will be burning and that's just one of the realities when you play at Loftus, if you hope to succeed you've got to make yourself burn."

Plenty of eyes will be on returning Wallabies five-eighth Quade Cooper, whose two-match suspension coincided with a media storm over an offer from NRL club Parramatta.

His inclusion means Matt Giteau shifts back to inside centre, while backrowers Ben McCalman and Scott Higginbotham, who will make his Test debut, have been added to the reserves.

Deans conjured a victory in Durban in 2008 to break an eight-year drought for Australia in South Africa and would dearly love to this time end 47 years of pain.

"The history's not great but this generation of players have experience playing on the high veld a lot more frequently," he said.

"It's not the barrier that it used to be but obviously it's a barrier that we haven't cleared yet.

"It's a rugby bastion so it's the ultimate. I grew up listening to transistor commentaries of encounters in South Africa and always wanted to be here."

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