The Springboks have won 10 of the 13 Tests in which Barnes has been the referee, but Proudfoot said it made no difference to their team’s preparations.

“We’ve got a good record with him because he is as very good referee,” said Proudfoot.

“He makes good decisions; he is a clear communicator. When you have a referee like that you can have a good record with him.”

Proudfoot said that all teams prepared with the particular match referee in mind.

“He [the referee] is the CEO, he is the boss so we’ve got to meet what he wants in the game,” he said.

“The ref at the weekend had a particular picture and said ‘this is what I want’, and the minute he communicated that to us and gave us a specific guideline and we adapted, everything was great.

“The penalties we conceded weren’t because of his interpretations, they were because of stupid penalties for ill-discipline, being offside or not releasing. It wasn’t his communication, it was us getting it wrong.

“Nothing is left to chance in this team. We have got specific plans – there is so much going on behind the scenes. We will have a specific plan with how we deal with Wayne and how we communicate with him and what he is looking for.

“Those are the specifics that we put around the team and how we approach him and get his information through to us.

“Wayne is a great communicator. He’s a very sharp referee. He has done great work and is very well respected worldwide.

“He likes a bit of a challenge at the breakdown but as I said last week, every referee has got their own idiosyncrasies about how he sees the challenge. And that’s fine and we accept that, as long as he applies it consistently to both sides the players adapt to that very, very quickly.”

Friday’s match kicks off at 11h45 SA time (18h45 local time) and is being televised on SuperSport and broadcast on SABC radio stations.