Handre Pollard confident South Africa will end losing streak against Wales

South Africa fly-half Handre Pollard expressed confidence on his side to end the losing streak against Wales when the two teams lock horns with each other in Yokohama on Sunday.

The Springboks are currently on a four-game losing streak against Wales with their last win over Warren Gatland's men coming during the 2015 World Cup when they sealed a 23-19 victory.

Praising Wales for their resurgence this year that saw them clinch the Grand Slam during the Six Nations tournament, Pollard believes South Africa have the ability to overcome relentless tactics from their opponents.

"They know what they are good at, and focus on that. They are relentless in those areas," he said.

"They starve you of possession and territory, and enforce their kicking game on you. They take away your set-piece. It's not a game-plan or rugby with a lot of flair in it, but it's suffocating.

 "If you fall into that trap, they will enforce their game-plan on you for 80 minutes and you will probably not win that match.

"Lately, we've struggled against them. It's always our last game on the end-of-year tour after a long season and in Cardiff."

Earlier, South Africa lost Trevor Nykane and Jesse Kriel to injuries while Cheslin Kolbe is ruled out of the semi-final while Wales too had their own injury problems with Liam Williams and Josh Navidi out of the tournament but despite the setbacks Pollard is expecting a fierce clash on Sunday.

"It's always tough, and you never have all your guys fit and ready to go. So, it's going to be nice to play them on a neutral ground with the teams having most of their guys available for selection.

"It's going to be a really interesting Test match.

"It's going to be two sides tactically really trying to figure each other out, feel each other out for the first 20 to 30 minutes, and then enforcing whatever plan we made all week, and trying to put the pressure on them."