The history books will be against the Springboks in two Rugby Championship Tests in Australia, with the second to be played in Sydney where they have not beaten the Wallabies in nearly 30 years.

The Springboks started the long haul to Australia on Thursday morning after opening their Rugby Championship campaign with a win and a loss against New Zealand.

For the next leg of the tournament, the Boks take on the Wallabies in Adelaide (27 August) and then Sydney (3 September).

However, the statistics show that Australia has been far from a happy hunting ground for the Springboks. Out of the 41 Tests between the two teams in Australia, South Africa has won just 12.

Their record in Sydney makes for even less pleasant reading. Since winning the first Test of the 1993 series against the then world champions, the Springboks have never again beaten the Wallabies in Sydney in seven attempts.

The last time South Africa played in Sydney was in 2011, when Peter de Villiers’ Springboks suffered a 39-20 loss after fielding a fairly experimental team featuring the likes of Deon Stegmann, Alistair Hargreaves, Dean Greyling and Charl McLeod.

It was two years later when the Springboks most recently tasted victory on Australian soil, when Heyneke Meyer’s team claimed a 38-12 win in Brisbane.

Springboks record in Sydney (since 1992):

31 July 1993: Australia 12 South Africa 19
21 August 1993: Australia 19 South Africa 12
13 July 1996: Australia 21 South Africa 16
29 July 2000: Australia 26 South Africa 6
9 July 2005: Australia 30 South Africa 12
5 August 2006: Australia 20 South Africa 18
7 July 2007: Australia 25 South Africa 17
30 July 2011: Australia 39 South Africa 20

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