It would be interesting when they played in New Zealand, he said.
"Knowing that we had the Reds coming up first for a couple of weeks, we've been looking into what they have been doing," he said.
"They do get away with a more with the refs over there, but it will be interesting to see how we go against them. We've got to treat these Australian teams with respect, we haven't played them in a couple of years."
Should de Groot get a starting role, he will have the job of containing one of the players of the Australian season, Taniela Tupou, the big Reds and Wallabies tighthead.
"We've got our plans around how we're going to deal to him," he said.
But having come up against some tough nuts in Super Rugby Aotearoa, would be useful preparation, he said.
"[Super Rugby] Aotearoa had a lot of solid tightheads, but we managed to keep them out," he said.
That was down to most teams having All Blacks' tightheads, and going up against them each week was pretty tough. Blues tighthead Nepo Laulala was the toughest he faced during the Aotearoa leg of the season.
De Groot said he was happy with how his season was going.
"It's been a lot of hard work. I did a couple of preseasons before I got signed. I am young, but it has all happened pretty quick, he said.
That hard work included getting his playing weight down from 135kg in the NPC last year to 126kg. That had made it easier for him to get around the field.
"It's going good. "We do a lot of things that people don't see. There's a lot of weight in the scrums.
"We've got to pull our bodies off the ground. A lot of players who play 80 minutes are normally the ones doing the hard yakka," he said.
Assistant coach Riki Flutey said they were expecting a tough battle with the Australian champions.
"They're a very well-balanced side on both sides of the ball. On defence, they are strong, strong at the breakdown.
"We know a lot about the way they play. There is a lot of excitement around, both in our camp and also out in the community."
Playing fresh opponents made it exciting for the side, he said.
"You look at the Aussie teams, and the Reds were very physical at the breakdown, and they look to set-piece you. Pretty much like Brad Thorn and how he played. It can be a mirror of what we saw from him as a player in how they play the game.
"They've got athletes in their team. They can ball play, they can carry, they can be physical.
"We're going to have to be on top of our game in terms of how physical they are. It is going to be a challenge for us New Zealand sides, but one we are looking forward to," he said.
Flutey was also conscious of the threat posed by Tupou.
"He has been impressive for the past few years. He's an awesome player. We're going to have to take care of him because when he gets the ball in open play, he's dangerous, just as much as he is in the scrums," he said.
Flutey said while coach Tony Brown would be off-shore during the competition, he had set everything up well for the side. The assistant coaches had been given extra responsibilities since the start of the season, while Brown had also worked with the players' leadership group to have them more involved.
He would also be keeping in touch regularly while overseas.