Eddie Jones begins second Australia tenure against severely weakened South Africa

Eddie Jones will hope to snap Australia's seven-match losing sequence in Pretoria in their Rugby Championship opener.

Jones replaced former Glasgow Warriors’ head coach Dave Rennie earlier this year and the ex-England boss is eagerly anticipated the tournament opener at Loftus Versfield (kick-off 4.05pm). The 63-year-old will be looking to snap Australia’s seven-match losing sequence in Pretoria and has handed a debut to highly-regarded Brumbies back-row Tom Hooper against what will be a weakened South Africa side, with their coach Jacques Nienaber resting some of his more regular performers such as captain Siya Kolisi, Malcolm Marx, Eben Etzebeth, Lood de Jager, Faf de Klerk, Cheslin Kolbe, Makazole Mapimpi and Damian de Allende pencilled in for next week’s match away at New Zealand.

"Our plan from the outset was to select a squad that we believe has what it takes to beat Australia while at the same time selecting a group of players that could travel to New Zealand to give us the best possible chance to do well in both matches," Nienaber explained. "This game is very important to set the tone for us this season, and we know that regardless of what style of play Australia dishes up it's going to be a physical and hard match."

Due to the World Cup later this year, the tournament is being truncated, with each team only facing each other once. Argentina welcome New Zealand to Mendoza later on Saturday afternoon (kick-off 8.10pm), with both matches being showed live on Sky Sports.