Former Springbok skipper John Smit has warned that Australia will arrive at Ellis Park battle-hardened for Saturday’s Rugby Championship opener, but believes the Springboks still have the edge.

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Reflecting on the Wallabies’ recent series against the British & Irish Lions, Smit said their preparation could not have been better for the challenge of facing South Africa.

“A big part of the Rugby Championship influence is who you face at home,” Smit said.

“I think it’s always easier when you’re facing the All Blacks at home, but this year we’ve got them away twice. I think the good news is that the start of our championship is at home against Australia and again we’ve got an Australian team that’s come off three really tough Tests and they’ve actually been really competitive. The margins were small.”

Smit highlighted that the Lions series gave Australia the perfect platform to sharpen up before the southern hemisphere campaign.

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“It doesn’t matter who you play in that June Test period. Any team of the All Blacks, Australia or South Africa that gets to play against the Lions comes into the championship a little bit sharper than anywhere else because they’ve had that battle hardness sort of drilled into them. And Australia stepped up. I think the whole world was expecting it to be an absolute whitewash, but it was a really competitive series.”

While Ellis Park presents a formidable challenge for the Wallabies, Smit cautioned that the Boks should not underestimate an opponent already forced to “rev higher” than South Africa during the June internationals.

“So, we’ve got a team that’s coming here. Granted, they’re coming to Ellis Park first, which is a difficult venue for them, but they’ve probably had to rev a little bit higher than our guys have had to rev in their June Test match series. A lot has been spoken about where Australian rugby is, but I think South Africa needs to realise that we’re we’re up against a team that have answered a lot of those calls in the last three Test matches against the Lions.”

Still, the 2007 World Cup-winning captain expects the Boks to prevail in front of their home faithful – though not by a runaway scoreline.

“I think we’ve got a proper Test match ahead of us and I do believe that South Africa has got enough to be able to overcome that. But I think the first Test will be the tougher of the two.”

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