Bok captain Siya Kolisi insists his charges are treating Japan with respect

South Africa kick off their end-of-year tour with a match against Japan at Wembley. The contest has intriguing matchups across the park, as many of the matchday 23 ply their trade in Japanese club rugby, so they face teammates.

"We'll treat Japan with the respect they deserve," said the double World Cup-winning captain.

"We all saw what they did last week against Australia, who beat us earlier this year, and one could see how tight that match was.

"We have a few players who play in Japan, and who have warned us about some of the players we will be facing, so our preparation has been good, and we feel well prepared for this game."

"We'd also like to start our tour on a strong note, so we don't see this as a warm-up game at all," said the Bok captain.

"It will be a special day for all of us. I'm also excited for Zachary [Porthen], who is playing his first Test, so we'd like to make it special for him as well."

Interestingly, Kolisi has faced Japan in all three outings between the teams dating back to the 2015 Rugby World Cup, where he came off the bench in the shock loss. AS such, he's had taken some valuable lessons from those games.

"The first match against them as a group [in 2019] is the one we could really take into account because it was completely different in 2015," said Kolisi.

"But what we've learned is that we need to be who we are as South Africans, so we must try to dominate the game physically and control the breakdown because they play fast rugby.

"They are also a team that don't go away. They are very effective, well structured, and they know their systems well, so it will be about the team that can impose themselves on the day."