Wallabies coach Dave Rennie is calling for more impact from explosive prop Taniela Tupou as they prepare for a fired-up Springboks in Sydney.
Rennie named an unchanged starting side, the first time the Wallabies will do so in 47 Tests, for Saturday's clash at the new Allianz Stadium.
Tupou came on with 15 minutes to go, with the Springboks nullifying his effectiveness as he missed a key one-on-one tackle for Kwagga Smith's second try.
“There’s no doubt we need more out of him,” Rennie told reporters.
“He made an error early, missed a tackle and then got penalised at the scrum. You have to deal with those setbacks.
“He’s had a really good training week and (we're) well aware that we need more out of him. He’s an important player to us so expect to see a different creature out of him.
“He’s as good as I’ve seen him within the group. He’s really happy being a father and I reckon when you have a kid, you’ve got more to play for and become less selfish. I reckon guys who I’ve coached who have had kids end up playing their best footy so that’s what we expect from ‘Nela.
“He’s in a really good space, we just need to see that on Saturdays. His last couple of outings haven’t been as good as what we saw early in the year. Like all players we’re asking for more, especially coming off the bench."
Rennie identified set-piece as a key area of concern as they build for the rest of the Rugby Championship.
The Wallabies converted just 7/13 lineouts last week whilst conceding four penalties at scrum-time, often on the back-foot outside of a heroic effort in the 31st minute to earn a penalty 5 metres out.
Whilst there was speculation Dave Porecki and Folau Fainga'a could be rotated, Rennie believes they have a better plan to deal with the Springboks' aerial dominance.
“Our set piece we have a lot more in there, if we can rectify that, it’ll give us a chance to play more territory because we played a lot in our own half last week,” he admits.
“With line outs, it’s not just the hooker, there’s the quality of the lift, timing, calling. You’re up against the best defensive line-out in the world so we’ve come up with a plan on how to do that better and hopefully, you see that Saturday.”
