Johannesburg — THE new-look Springbok pack will have a huge weight on their shoulders tomorrow in their clash against Italy in Udine in the second Test of their European tour.

The Italian forwards put up a tough fight against New Zealand's pack last week and, despite International Rugby Board referees' boss Paddy O'Brien admitting this week that New Zealand were hard done by in the set pieces at times, the home team will draw some confidence from their performance.

Failure to rise to the challenge could send the Boks slumping to their fourth defeat of the tour.

With Ireland expected to provide tougher competition next week, Springbok coach Peter de Villiers yesterday opted to follow the advice of sports scientist Tim Noakes and rest some of his star players. But how this will affect their scrums remains to be seen, particularly with the home team making it clear they will target the set piece by naming five forwards on the bench.

Italian coach Nick Mallett yesterday named a formidable front row featuring props Martin Castrogiovanni and Salvatore Perugini with hooker Fabio Ongaro.

They will go up against the somewhat inexperienced Bok front row of captain John Smit, debutante Wian du Preez and hooker Adriaan Strauss. Du Preez replaces Tendai Mtawarira, who will be on the bench, while Strauss replaces the injured Bismarck du Plessis. Ulster prop BJ Botha will also be on the bench.

The Bok pack will also be missing injured flank Schalk Burger, while lock Victor Matfield is on the bench. They have been replaced by Andries Bekker and Danie Rossouw.

De Villiers was wary of the threat Italy posed. "The more experience they gain, the better they are becoming and they are able to compete with any team on the day," he said. "They have a very good pack and they showed in their match against New Zealand that they will be very competitive at scrum time."

He was excited about seeing other debutantes -- utility back Francois Hougaard and flank Jean Deysel -- in action and said: "We feel that this is an ideal opportunity to test Jean and Francois at Test level; hopefully they will be able to make the step up."

SPRINGBOK SQUAD

Zane Kirchner; JP Pietersen, Jaque Fourie, Adi Jacobs, Bryan Habana; Morné Steyn, Fourie du Preez; Ryan Kankowski, Danie Rossouw, Heinrich Brüssow; Andries Bekker, Bakkies Botha; John Smit, (capt), Adriaan Strauss, Wian du Preez

Reserves: Tendai Mtawarira, BJ Botha, Victor Matfield, Jean Deysel, Francois Hougaard, Ruan Pienaar, Wynand Olivier.