Peter Div heads for Last Chance Saloon

The Springboks' final Tri-Nations match of a poor 2010 campaign could also bring the curtain down on the tenure of coach Peter de Villiers.

Tomorrow's Test against Australia in Bloemfontein will take place against the background of De Villiers's latest controversial remark about the Springboks supporting Blue Bulls prop Bees Roux, who has been charged with the murder of a policeman.

SA Rugby union president Oregan Hoskins suggested this week that action could be taken against De Villiers once the Test match was out of the way - and several sources have told The Times that the coach faces another disciplinary hearing.

How the latest De Villiers gaffe has affected the Bok team is unclear. Whether all the players feel they're "100%" behind Roux is unlikely. Rugby players are notoriously shy of taking sides on any issue that is remotely controversial and it's doubtful whether most of the players would have been comfortable being paraded as a support group for an alleged killer.

On the field, though, and assuming De Villiers's comments haven't upset or divided the team, the Boks should be favourites to beat the Wallabies.

Wallaby coach Robbie Deans has shuffled his pack, preferring the power and experience of hooker Stephen Moore to Saia Fainga'a and lock Mark Chisholm to Dean Mumm. He's also included No8 Ben McCalman in place of Richard Brown with the backline unchanged.

It shouldn't alter the outcome of this Test. The Boks made only one change from the team that won 44-31 at Loftus last week, bringing in Danie Rossouw at lock in place of Flip van der Merwe.

Last week's match resembled a Barbarians game from the 1970s, but this encounter will surely be tighter, with both sides spending the week ironing out their defence problems.

The Boks should still have too much firepower. Juan Smith, after two Tests, will only be hitting his straps this weekend, while the hype surrounding the 100th Test caps of John Smit and Victor Matfield in the past two weeks will be absent. That can only be a good thing.

South Africans expect nothing less than a win from the Springboks because they don't lose to Australia when the altitude rises above 1000m. But even a win won't rectify what has been a poor tournament, where the All Blacks looked by some distance the best team.

The Springbok coaching staff have a lot of work and soul-searching to do if they intend to reassert these Boks as potential World Cup winners in 12 months' time.