Wales skipper Dan Biggar has downplayed the raft of changes made by South Africa for the second Test in Bloemfontein on Saturday.
Jacques Nienaber has made a total of 14 changesto his starting lineup from the gripping series opener with only Eben Etzebeth retaining his place whilst Malcolm Marx, Vincent Koch and Damian Willemse are named on the bench.
While several pundits - including Wales legend Sir Gareth Edwards - believe the major rotation from the Springboks are disrespectful to Wayne Pivac's side, Biggar felt otherwise.
"Not at all," he said.
"If you look at the players they have picked, you'd almost say the players they have picked for this weekend are, I suppose, the real in-form players.
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"I know the side that we played last weekend are renowned, experienced, World Cup winners but this team, they have got some real exciting form players. When I saw that they had made 14 changes, I was thinking about who they were going to bring in? Then you looked at the teamsheet and I don't expect this to be anything other than an incredibly tough game on Saturday.
"I really believe the team we are playing on Saturday is probably a team which is a little bit more match sharp because they have been playing a little bit more.
"If you look in particular at 12, [Quins' Andre Esterhuizen], he's been playing in the Prem and he's been the form player in the Premiership so it is not as though they have managed to swap a World Cup winner and a brilliant player in Damian de Allende out for Esterhuizen coming in. It certainly doesn't weaken them."
Meanwhile, Wales head coach Pivac echoed Biggar's thoughts and feels the new-look South Africa team - which includes six uncapped players - could be unpredictable.
"For us, we are not really sure what might be coming," said Pivac, who has made just one adjustment to his starting XV with Alex Cuthbert replacing Josh Adams on the wing, with the latter dropping to the bench alongside uncapped prop Sam Wainwright and front-row Wyn Jones.
"There are certainly a lot of players there who haven't played together for a while so for us it is really a matter of focusing on what we can bring to the game and hopefully that will be a lot more disciplined than last week because we let ourselves down clearly in that area of the game.
"To hold South Africa for as close as we did and for as long as we did, it was a testament to some of the good work we did do.
"It [South Africa's changes] hasn't changed our preparation at all. It's going to be 15 rugby players in green shirts. We're expecting more of the same. They are a very experienced team no matter what combinations they put out. This side is one to be respected and not to be taken lightly. They have depth and quality throughout their squad.
"It was a great atmosphere last week and we're expecting more of the same from the crowd in Bloemfontein this Saturday."
Last weekend, Pivac's charges narrowly missed out on becoming the first Welsh side to win in South Africa and despite losing 32-29, Biggar admitted the impressive performance has given the team confidence and a platform to build on for the rest of the series.
Wales had led 18-3 at the break in Pretoria but Alun Wyn Jones, Louis Rees-Zammit and Rhys Carre were all shown yellow cards.
Pivac highlighted Rees-Zammit's sin-binning (which was for not releasing Willie le Roux in the tackle) as a key turning point in the contest and admitted on Thursday he had spoken to World Rugby about those decisions.
"In reviewing the game, probably one of the plays of the match was when we were penalised and that was Louis Rees-Zammit's excellent cover tackle and then his clear release and then his work over the ball to earn a penalty," added Pivac.
"They scored a try off that and we were down another player so that was a big moment in the game for us and very disappointing, but certainly, we have to put that behind us. The boys have worked really hard again this week as they did for the first Test.
"I don't think we could do much else to prepare for this Test match. We will put the disappointment of last week behind us and we are excited by the opportunity to go again."
