And despite the Springboks’ own injury concerns, Kidney claims that whatever side they field will be a stern test for the 2009 RBS 6 Nations Grand Slam champions.

“The tradition of South African rugby is the set piece and the physicality they bring,” he said.

“The fact they have a few bangs and knocks, well they have 600 professional players to our 120, giving them more depth to choose from.

“They have a lot of exciting talent in their set up that we probably don't know much about. They're the third-best team in the world so they will be a huge challenge.

“If we can be in it with 20 minutes to go, well anything can happen in Test rugby. We're concentrating on our performance and trying to get things right when we have the ball.”

Kidney and co will be looking to put an end to their four-Test losing streak which stretches back to the final match of the RBS 6 Nations against England.

After that loss they suffered three defeats at the hands of World Cup winners New Zealand, and Kidney admits lessons have been learned from the summer.

“We took a lot of positives from the first Test and then learnt a lot from the second,” he added.

“In that third Test we made three mistakes and were 21-0 down, then we were chasing the game which is very dangerous when you're playing the All Blacks.

“They picked us off and we've learnt from that if we ever go behind again, we'll never chase it that hard.”