Wales v South Africa: Springboks captain Siya Kolisi eyes first win in Cardiff since 2013

Captain Siya Kolisi says South Africa have learnt the lessons of previous defeats in Wales as they aim to earn a first victory in Cardiff since 2013.

Wales have won their past four meetings at the Principality Stadium.

South Africa have knocked Wales out of two World Cups in that time but were missing some key players for their most recent visit to Cardiff in 2018.

"There were a couple of things we spoke about and we do know what went wrong. They outsmarted us," said Kolisi.

"But now we have everybody here so now we have our full-strength team. Our international players are available and they also have theirs, so it's going to be a tough game.

"We've really looked at our past games, we think we have researched a whole lot more this week. We're really excited for that."

The teams last met in Japan in the 2019 World Cup semi-finals, with the Springboks edging a tense encounter before going on to beat England in the final.

Wales will be without several first-team players on Saturday due to injury - with captain Alun Wyn Jones and back rows Ross Moriarty and Taulupe Faletau among them - but Kolisi is still braced for another bruising fixture.

"Some will match you physically, then go away, but Wales are hard for the full 80 minutes," the South Africa flanker said.

"You know you're going to be in it for the full 80 minutes. That's why the bench players... are so important for us.

"They [Wales] always step up to the challenge - you saw it in the World Cup semi-final, it's exactly the same thing when you play them here.

"They never go away and are very smart. They play a similar type of game to us, so it's all about who loses concentration or who takes the opportunity when it comes."

With Faletau, Moriarty, Justin Tipuric and Dan Lydiate missing, Wales are without a host of back-row players.

But one player making a welcome return in that area is Cardiff flanker Ellis Jenkins, who will make his first international appearance for three years on Saturday.

Jenkins produced a man-of-the-match display in Wales' 20-11 victory against South Africa in November 2018 before suffering a serious knee injury in the final minute.

The 28-year-old missed 26 months of action before finally returning for Cardiff in February 2021.

Kolisi was in the Springboks team that day in 2018 and is pleased to see Jenkins return.

"It is always tough to see a player get injured," Kolisi said.

"But he's worked to come back and fight again and the fact he's got his opportunity again tells you a lot about him.

"He's a hard player. I've seen some of his games in the URC [United Rugby Championship] and it's going to be a tough game this weekend with him and [Taine] Basham.

"We play against each other but it's great to see him back. It's always great to see a player come back - it's hard to come back from such a big injury.

"Well done to him and his medical team for getting him back to where he is today. I'm looking forward to battling against him this weekend."