The Boks arrived in the Italian port city late on Sunday afternoon after making the trip from Toulon by bus, and with the squad settled in they kicked off their on-field preparations on Monday.

“Italy are a good side with proper systems in place and they come a long way with their coach,” said Davids.

“They have also had a few good results. They beat Wales away, and they beat Australia last weekend. They also defeated us in 2016, so we have to pitch up with the right mindset.

“We are expecting a physical game from them, and looking closely at their side, they have a good pack that will challenge us in the lineouts, scrums and mauls and they are also very good defensively, so we need to be on our A game.”

Davids revealed that Bok loose forward Pieter-Steph du Toit would have a disciplinary hearing on Tuesday after receiving a red card in the 12^th minute against France for a dangerous clean-out at a ruck and said they would adapt their plans accordingly.

“Pieter-Steph has a disciplinary hearing tomorrow (on Tuesday) and as coaches we will adapt to the outcome of that,” said Davids.

“We know it was not his intention to go into contact like that, and it would be a bonus to have him available for the Test, but we’ll let the process unfold first.”

Looking back at their two close defeats in the last few weeks, the Boks felt that they had learned a lot from those Tests, with Moeat saying: “As a team we got good answers from those matches. We executed the game plan well and for most of the match we did really well. Losing is never nice, but one always learns a little more when you lose.”

Davids added: “We certainly got a lot of answers and from a playing perspective and we will continue with our processes. We have big belief in our squad, and we respect the Italians immensely. We know where we need to improve to get the reward for our efforts in the next two weeks.

“It was quite a good contest against France, and it was pretty much what we expected. I must commend the players on how they adapted to the red card and the attitude and fight they showed under those circumstances.”

Despite coming off two close defeats, Moerat said the team were on the right track: “We are definitely on the right road. In rugby one tends to look at the results but looking at the way the pack and backline played last week we are relatively happy.

“We know our plan and we are following our processes, and although the next two weeks are going to be very challenging, we will continue to back what we are doing and hopefully get the results.”

Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber will announce his squad for the clash on Tuesday.