Wallabies prop Allan Alaalatoa believes the squad are still carrying the hurt of the Argentina defeat a fortnight ago, looking to translate it into a strong performance against South Africa in Adelaide.
Alaalatoa is amongst a host of stars available for the Test at the Adelaide Oval on August 27, missing the 47-17 defeat after returning home due to personal reasons.
Purchase your tickets for the O'Reilly Cup and the Rugby Championship
The extended break between Tests has meant the result has stuck with the players according to the Brumbies skipper, searching for accountability and a response on Saturday.
“I think it’s more the boys are pretty gutted after the last game,” Alaalatoa told reporters.
“We spoke about it as players we thought we had the right game plan in place from the coaches but we just weren’t good enough as players to put on the field and that’s our job. We’ve got to be accountable on that front.
“We had some tough conversations yesterday in review but it’s all for us to get better and apply this weekend. We’ve had some great additions into camp, a bit of experience which has been awesome, we just had a sour taste in our mouth after the last game and unfortunately, we went on break so the boys were probably thinking about it a long time.
“Everyone has turned up this morning in one of our big training sessions and had that edge so that’s a good feeling for our preparation this morning.”
The visitors have already confirmed their side, with Malcolm Marx once again slated to come off the bench as part of a refined 'Bomb Squad', going away from their usual 6-2 forwards split.
Jacques Nienaber's side last won in Australia nine years ago, with the Wallabies pack recognising the threat they possess from 1-23.
“Just what we know of them is South Africa are a team that pride itself on set-piece so I think all the games I’ve been a part of, the forwards have mentioned that we need to take it to them and understand it’s a threat coming against us because they have a world-class pack.,” Alaalatoa said.
“We understand that around their game, it’s something they pride themselves on and they’ll go to it a lot on Saturday.
“We see their bomb squad or their bench sometime come on in the first half. I think for us, we call our bench the finishers so we’ve gone past the time of the starters playing 80 minutes
“The guys off the bench have a job to do and that’s to add impact. That’s going to be the impact of our boys and something whoever’s on the bench has that role and making sure they fulfil that.”
The Wallabies have welcomed further reinforcements into the squad, with Kurtley Beale, Ben Donaldson and Matt Gibbon joining as additional team members.
