Record-breaking Springbok captain John Smit believes that the biggest challenge his team faces is avoiding the 'trap' of complacency, ahead of their final home game in this year's Tri-Nations against the Wallabies at Newlands on Saturday.

Smit has led his South African team to impressive back-to-back Tri-Nations wins against the defending champion All Blacks over the past two weeks, and expectations are mounting as the Boks aim for a clean sweep of victories in their home leg of the 2009 tournament.

The consecutive triumphs against their great rivals and the form which they've shown have made the Boks overwhelming favourites for the Cape Town clash, but Smit has warned his team of the potential mental pitfalls of a winning streak.

"For any team that's doing well for a two- or three-week period, the biggest trap is complacency," Smit told a media gathering in Cape Town.

"And it [dealing with complacency] becomes part and parcel of learning how to become a team that needs to perform every week."

Despite the dangers of becoming too comfortable, Smit is confident that his experienced squad have the necessary attributes to maintain their focus for each new game.

"We'd like to believe that we are the kind of team that can keep on stepping it up.

"We push ourselves hard during the week so that we can allow every weekend to be a better performance and we can allow the intensity to be upped every single time we play," the captain of 60 Tests said.

Smit suggests that it is often easy for a winning team to become a victim of its own success, but insists that the will to win amongst his players is such that complacency should never be a problem.

"There are many [mental] traps to fall in. That's the trouble with winning; the more you do it, the more you need to do it.

"The pressure [that comes from winning] is stronger from within the team, not to let each other down than it is from outside of the team."

The Springboks named an unchanged starting line-up for this weekend, with a combined total of over 600 caps. Smit believes that the consistent selection of an experienced core of players makes maintaining the winning habit that much easier.

"It does help [consistency in selection]. We've seen this team come a long way and the experience that they've gained with every test match the've played together helps.

"When you get consistency every weekend, it makes preparations during the week a lot easier, because you are repeating a lot of the same things with the same players, it is the best way to create habits, so at the moment it's a pretty good place to be in."

The skipper has been a revelation since his move from hooker to tighthead, and he more than held his own against All Black loosehead Tony Woodcock, who is widely regarded as one of the world's premier scrummagers.

That was supposed to be the biggest test Smit would face this year, but the veteran of 86 Tests expects a tough challenge from a Wallaby pack that has improved dramatically under the guidance of Robbie Deans.

"Its an area [the scrum] where they've stepped up a great deal in the last 12 months," Smit said. "You can see from the Super 14, probably one of the most imposing scrums was the Waratah's scrum, which obviously makes up a large part of their [Wallaby] pack for Saturday.

"I don't think that any of the top sides out there don't pose some sort of threat at scrum time, so we've got some work to do this week."

A Lions series victory and two home wins against a misfiring New Zealand side have caused many pundits to label this Springbok side as one of the best South Africa has produced since readmission, and Smit agrees that the experienced group of players in place have the ability to kick on to become world rugby's pre-eminent force.

The 31-year-old suggests that with each game the team plays, they evolve into a more complete Test match outfit.

"The more time the guys spend together, things become easier," he said.

"Experience is something that's difficult to attain and once you've gone through the hard yards of getting it together and getting a core of a team.

"The coach has been picking sides with over 600 caps for quite some time and those are the kinds of thing that help in a test match environment."

Smit is a leader of a team in confident spirits, but he remains wary each game in a competition where the "margins are so small" and "any of the three teams can beat each other."

Smit admits that a lot of work lies ahead if his side is to lift the Tri-Nations title for the third time, but is looking forward to the Boks "giving it all" in the last match before they begin their away leg in a few weeks time.

"There are almost two tournament's. A home leg and an away leg. The boys will look forward to the break, but every week's the same thing. You've got to empty the tank every time," he said.