Third Test in Cape Town: Five boxes the Boks must tick today

In what has become a must win game, the Springboks take on Wales in the third Test decider at the Cape Town Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Here are five things we need to see from the Boks

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Convincing performance

The Springboks have yet to produce a convincing performance in the series. They had to fight back from an 18-3 deficit in the first Test and only managed to clinch the win with an 82^nd minute penalty.

In the second Test a fringe team seemed to link up well, but their inexperience showed when they couldn’t finish their chances, allowing Wales to sneak in and pick up their historic first away win over the Boks.

With a massive Rugby Championship campaign fast approaching, with the first two games against the All Blacks, the Springboks could do with a convincing win to boost their confidence.

Series win

Before the start of this series, the two nations had played each other 37 times, with the Boks picking up 30 wins to Wales’ six, with one draw. They had played a total of five series before, with the Boks winning all of them and Wales had never won a match on South African soil.

Now the visitors have claimed their first ever win in South Africa and stand on the verge of a stunning upset against the current world champions. It is not wrong to say that a series defeat to Wales at home would be disastrous and a major embarrassment for the Boks.

Varied game plan

The Boks game plan has been much maligned over the years, however, it has worked for them, which led to a World Cup triumph and them being ranked first in the world for a decent period of time. But against Wales, who play a similar brand of rugby, the Boks can never seem to shake them, with most of the matches between the two sides in recent times ending within a score.

The Boks need to shake things up a bit. They don’t need to change their game plan, but add a bit more variation to it, especially if what they are doing isn’t working, they need to be able to change things up on the fly.

Strong set piece showing

The Boks’ biggest strengths over the past few years have been their set pieces, with a dominance in the scrums and mauls that has been unparalleled the world over. In the Welsh series so far the Boks have been unable to assert that same dominance.

Wales have battled impressively and have given the Boks a run for their money on a front they were expected to easily win. The Boks will now need to put in a big showing in the scrums and lineouts in Cape Town if they want to gain the upper hand and walk away with a good win and series in the bag.

Players need to stand up

With a number of exciting in form players waiting in the wings, a few Bok stalwarts need to stand up and prove they still deserve to be first choice. Scrumhalf Faf de Klerk has already become the first victim, with Jaden Hendrikse preferred ahead of him for the series decider.

Other stalwarts who have struggled for consistent form recently include captain Siya Kolisi and Handre Pollard and with them being two of the most experienced leaders in the squad, they need to up their game and lead from the front in the finale to remind everyone how good they can be.