The Springboks are expecting a fierce onslaught from the Wallabies in their Rugby Championship opener at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on Saturday (6:45) and lock RG Snyman and Grant Williams (scrumhalf) agreed that they would be tested across the board.

The Boks arrived in Australia last week Thursday to acclimatise to the time zone and local conditions, and they wasted no time getting into the thick of things with training and gym sessions on Friday and Saturday.

The players had Sunday off to recover and resumed training on Monday, and according to Snyman, the decision certainly paid off.

“Arriving in Australia the week before the Test was beneficial because it allowed us more time to overcome the jetlag, and especially outside of the Test week itself as well,” said Snyman.

“The guys are now well settled into the time zone, and we are training full-out and feel good, so we are excited about Saturday’s match.”

Snyman said the fact that the Boks had played two Tests against the world’s second highest ranked team, Ireland, last month also assisted in their preparation for the challenge they are about to face against Australia, New Zealand and Argentina in the Rugby Championship.

“I don’t think we could have had better preparation than facing Ireland going into the Rugby Championship, and we certainly learned a few things in those matches which we would like to carry into this competition,” said the big Bok lock.

With the South African franchises having made the switch from participating in the southern hemisphere’s Super Rugby competition to the Vodacom United Rugby Championship, Investec Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup in the northern hemisphere, Snyman admitted that it had changed their approach to the Castle Lager Rugby Championship.

“The preparation is different these days because we don’t face their players during the season as we did in the past, so there’s a lot more work that goes into analysing the players and their style of play,” he said.

Williams, who will face the Wallabies for the first time in Australia if he is named in Springbok head coach Rassie Erasmus’ 23-man squad for the match, looked forward to the challenge: “They have good scrumhalves and a guy like Nic White, in particular, has a lot of experience, so they will test us. But we also want to go out there and give our best, so hopefully it will be a top-class match.”