The Boks will have a re-match with Australia at the Allianz Stadium in Sydney on Saturday, where the team has been based since Sunday afternoon, where a victory will be vital to keep alive their Castle Lager Rugby Championship title hopes, and Kitshoff said the team were up for the challenge.

“The back-to-back defeats was a bitter pill to swallow, but I still believe this team has the potential and skill to be world-beaters,” said Kitshoff.

“We have three games left in the competition and we have the opportunity to turn things around.

“We are settled in Sydney. We had our first training session of the week today (on Monday) and it went well, and since we’ve been in Australia for more than a week now, everyone is acclimatised to the time zone.”

Davids was equally confident that the team was still on course despite the recent setbacks in their campaign and said: “We are definitely still on the right track.

“We are blessed with a balanced squad with a good mix of youth and experience, and with a few experienced players out with injuries, we have been able to give a few young players a chance in the last few matches, and we believe they will gain a lot from that going forward.”

Both Davids and Kitshoff attributed the team’s 25-17 defeat against the Wallabies in Adelaide to missed opportunities, with the coach saying it would be one of their key focus areas this week.

“We did a thorough review of last week’s game and in the end, it came down to Australia creating opportunities, which they used, while we also created a lot of opportunities, but we didn’t capitalise on them, and that’s our main focus this week,” said Davids.

Kitshoff agreed and said: “From a player’s perspective we were extremely disappointed after the match, and we still are with the result. But after a review of the match, we saw how many opportunities we created, which we didn’t score points from and that gave us more confidence.

“It doesn’t change the result, but it has made us more positive.

“The guys had a great attitude at training today and we are up another big Test this weekend.”

With Argentina and Australia leading the Castle Lager Rugby Championship log with nine points after winning two of their first three matches, and New Zealand on five log points and the Springboks on four after winning one of their matches respectively, Davids said it showed the quality of the teams in the competition.

“The fact that the competition is so competitive shows how challenging this tournament is,” said Davids.

“With the teams playing so well it also means you have to be the best every Saturday to get the result. One can also see the growth of the teams in the competition, and this is great preparation for us a year out before the Rugby World Cup.”