Mortlock eyes must-win clash

Australia will be out to appease the Perth faithful when they meet South Africa in Saturday's Tri Nations at Subiaco Oval.

Australia will be out to appease the Perth faithful when they meet South Africa in Saturday's Tri Nations at Subiaco Oval.

The Springboks have beaten the Wallabies in two of their three previous meetings in Perth, but captain Stirling Mortlock says that defeat was hard to take so the team is keen to give the Western Australian fans something to smile about this time.

Putting the Perth hoodoo aside, the Wallabies have now won just five of their past 16 games against their Tri-Nations opponents.

They haven't won a series since 2001, haven't won in New Zealand since the same year and haven't won in South Africa since 2000.

Next month they'll play a test at altitude in Johannesburg, where they haven't won since 1963.

“It's a given that we're probably the lowest ranked out of the three teams,” Mortlock told AAP.

“Travel has been a bit of an issue for us as a team and that's not something that's foreign to us, we know that.

“Having said that, the Tri-Nations as a tournament has been getting closer and closer as the years have progressed.

“The difference between winning and losing each individual Test match is quite minimal and then the repercussions for the actual result of the Tri-Nations is pretty important.

“At the end of the day it comes down to only a percentage here or a percentage there.”

Australia are doing something about it, just don't call it “rebuilding” – new coach Robbie Deans insisted this week he'd never used the word.

“Everyone's pretty clear on what we're trying to achieve and it's more about trying to grow as a group, whereas initially there was a lot of uncertainty about where we were going, what we were about,” said Mortlock.

“Now it's more about a growth, that's probably the key word.”

Whether Australia can grow quickly enough to be able to snatch the Tri-Nations cup cakes away from the distracted big boys in Perth remains to be seen.

“We're in a situation where if you go into these contests not thinking that you can win then you're kidding yourself,” said Mortlock.

“We're certainly not here this year to make up the numbers.

“The team have pretty solid goals and aspirations and set high standards.

“Obviously whether we achieve them or not, there's a lot of work and a lot of uncertainties that have to be nutted out.”