They sit five world-rankings spots lower than Australia, but Diamonds coach Lisa Alexander will still be wary of South Africa at the Netball World Cup.
Why? Because they're coached by Norma Plummer.
Plummer, who guided her native Australia to back-to-back world titles in Auckland and Singapore, recently took over at the helm for the world No.6 Proteas.
When the World Cup starts next Friday, the revered 70-year-old will have been in the role for less than two months.
Alexander didn't doubt what her Diamonds predecessor could bring to them, even in such a short space of time.
"They're going to be improved, and that's what I've already heard out of Africa," Alexander said.
"I've got a couple of contacts over there, and they tell me that South Africa has definitely improved under Norma's coaching.
"You would expect that, she's going to provide that great intelligence and tactical knowledge that she's built up over many, many years.
"That'll give the South African players a lot of confidence about what they do, and they're a really good team and very difficult to play on, so they're going to provide a great challenge as well."
South Africa have twice earned medals at the global showpiece, securing bronze in Perth in 1967 and silver in Birmingham in 1995, but they haven't finished higher than fifth at the last four editions.
Plummer's appointment in June came at such short notice she says she didn't even know all the players' names when she flew to South Africa for the squad's Diamond Challenge series with Malawi, Zambia and Uganda.
But in her first two matches in charge they notched their first two wins over fifth-ranked rivals Malawi since 2012.
In the past week the Proteas lost both warm-up Tests against the world No.2 Silver Ferns - a promising 68-44 defeat in Hamilton followed by a 67-28 thumping in Auckland.
Plummer says her side have the quality and commitment to do well on the world stage, but simply haven't had enough time to tackle much of the finer technical work.
When it came to picking a World Cup winner this week, Plummer knew who she was going with.
"I can't help but tip Australia, I think the depth in the whole team and where it's at is pretty strong."
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