Yet, in Pretoria, the Wallabies will play what is unquestionably their most important game of the season.

It's a pivotal game. The Wallabies can either go in either direction. A win would be an unequivocal statement that this side has turned the corner, that there is a mix of skill, toughness and smarts to build a future on. A win gets us all looking forward to Twickenham in December. A loss, however, and the tentative signs of a recovery will be squashed.

Forget the Wallabies' dreadful record in Pretoria. The international game is in such a state of flux, disrupted by money and the rising power of clubs, that the history books can be temporarily discounted. The win is there if they're good enough.

It is because of a deep respect for South African rugby that I keep waiting and expecting the Springboks to return to their muscular, frightening best but let's park that romanticism and tell it like it really is.

Had the ball bounced differently this year, the Springboks could easily be 0-4 on home soil. Ireland beat them in the first Test of their June series despite having had their adopted South African, CJ Stander, sent off after just 23 minutes for the collision that knocked out Pat Lambie.

In the remaining two Tests, a combination of Irish weariness and belated South African resistance combined to help the Springboks limp to a 2-1 series win.

That success could have been a building block but really the Springboks are no further on. They used another get out of jail card against Argentina at home, lost away, and then offered next to nothing in Brisbane and Christchurch. Little wonder some in South Africa are howling for the return of Jake White in some capacity.

They are searching for a link, any link, to when they had an identity about how they played the game.

They are also plagued by injuries. The prominent role played by No.10 Elton Jantjies so far has been painted as an attempt to change the way they play, but really that selection is a forced hand.

Handre Pollard, of the Bulls, and Lambie would have driven the ship had they been fit. Strip any Test side in the world of their best two No.10s and every one of them, save possibly the All Blacks, will struggle. If the Boks have any mercy they will remove Jantjies from the 23 completely this weekend. He looked like a broken player in New Zealand after dropping a restart cold.

And remember Duane Vermeulen, the world's best No.8 in 2014? He's still about, signed to Toulon but available for the Springboks had he too not been injured.

One word of warning about injuries, however. Lambie aside, a few Springboks are starting to trickle back. Tight-heads Vincent Koch and Julian Redelinghuys were not available for the Brisbane Test but now come back in.

With all due respect to Lourens Adriaanse, who started at Suncorp Stadium, he is the weakest No.3 I can recall starting a Test for South Africa.

What I have found when watching the Springboks at home this year is this: the old fear factor has been conspicuously absent among the visitors. Neither Ireland nor Argentina looked remotely daunted by their surroundings or their opposites.

Perhaps the weight of history came into play a little for the Irish as they got close a historic series win, but when they played with wit, intelligence and courage they made the Springboks look terribly vulnerable.

So the judgment that will be passed on the Wallabies this weekend will be simple. A good Australian side will beat the Springboks. Anything less than that and the signs of true progress will be elusive once again.