Folau 'more motivated than ever' for Boks

Cape Town - Australia assistant coach Stephen Larkham has described Israel Folau as "more motivated than ever" ahead of Saturday's Test in Pretoria.

The Wallabies star full-back is yet to score in this year's Rugby Championship, after two tries in the three-match series against England back in June.

Talk of a move to outside centre in the Wallabies line-up hasn't materialised but Larkham has insisted that Australia need to do their best to get Folau on the ball as much as possible, starting on Saturday.

To date, Folau has scored 20 tries in 45 Tests for the Wallabies since his debut back in 2013.

"He's been more motivated than ever I think to get out there and play well," Larkham told the Sydney Morning Herald.

"The ball's not necessarily going to him in the right spaces at the right times, but he's very enthusiastic about improving and adding to this team and we certainly have seen that at training over the last month. 

"Mainly attack is the area he's shown the most enthusiasm in the last month of training. He's been exceptional. I've only worked with Izzy now for 18 months, if that, and he's a different person now than he was 18 months ago, definitely.

"We went through a pretty tough stretch with the games we lost, but there's a lot of motivation in the group at the moment to become better and I don't think anyone's driving that more than Izzy at the moment."

Teams:

Springboks

15 Pat Lambie, 14 Bryan Habana, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Juan de Jongh, 11 Francois Hougaard, 10 Morne Steyn, 9 Rudy Paige, 8 Warren Whiteley, 7 Oupa Mohoje, 6 Francois Louw, 5 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Vincent Koch, 2 Adriaan Strauss (captain), 1 Tendai Mtawarira

Substitutes: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Steven Kitshoff, 18 Julian Redelinghuys, 19 Lood de Jager, 20 Willem Alberts, 21 Jaco Kriel, 22 Lionel Mapoe, 23 Willie le Roux

Wallabies

15 Israel Folau, 14 Dane Haylett-Petty, 13 Samu Kerevi, 12 Bernard Foley, 11 Reece Hodge, 10 Quade Cooper, 9 Will Genia, 8 Sean McMahon, 7 Michael Hooper, 6 Dean Mumm, 5 Rob Simmons, 4 Adam Coleman, 3 Sekope Kepu, 2 Stephen Moore (captain), 1 Scott Sio

Substitutes (from): 16 James Hanson, 17 James Slipper, 18 Tom Robertson, 19 Kane Douglas, 20 Scott Fardy, 21 Lopeti Timani, 22 Nick Phipps, 23 Tevita Kuridrani, 24 Sefa Naivalu