Peter de Villiers has described South Africa's early-season international fixtures as being of 'critical interest' to him ahead of next year's World Cup.
The Springboks face Wales in Cardiff on June 5, followed by a home Test against France and two meetings with Italy on the remaining weekends of the month.
In what is a busy year for the world champions, they also compete in the Tri-Nations and face all four home nations during their year-end tour. The match against Ireland will be the first ever international match at the Aviva Statium. It is a schedule that takes their total Test count to 14.
There have been mounting concerns that the workload is too big for De Villiers and his players, but the coach has revealed how he plans to utilise the group.
'I'm looking at a northern team in Witbank and a southern team in East London,' he told www.sport24.com of the two fixtures against the Italians.
'It does not mean that we won't pick some guys from the south in the northern side and vice versa. We want to win those Tests.
'The four games are of critical interest on the road to the World Cup. By then we would have seen everyone in action.
'South Africa will enter the Tri-Nations (against Australia and New Zealand) with their best representative team.'
De Villiers also rubbished suggestions that the Azzurri will be taken lightly.
He added: 'We are not underestimating Italy at all. We have a lot of respect for them and consider them the best scrumming side in the world.
'They will test us thoroughly in the scrums and we'll get a good idea of who the best players are in that area.'
The plan from South African rugby at the moment is to hand several European-based players a chance in the clash against Wales, due to the game coming so close to the Super 14 play-offs.
But the Springboks boss sent a strong message to those plying their trade in the northern hemisphere.
He continued: 'We don't know how good the overseas players really are because the competitions there are different. We will consider players in South Africa for the Tri-Nations unless we have a situation where the locally-based player is not as good as the one overseas.'
And he was hoping the Grand Slam tour in November will bring the best players together for one final bonding session ahead of the World Cup tournament in New Zealand.
He added: 'It will be the last opportunity to build a camp around rugby prior to the World Cup.
'If the players gel the way I think they can, we'll have cohesion the next time we tour.'
