Wales can equal their best Autumn campaign ever if they pile more misery on South Africa, who were beaten by Italy for the first time on Saturday. They have only one win in their last eight Test matches, but Lydiate is expecting a wounded South Africa side to bite back.
He said: “They’ll be wanting to finish the autumn internationals on a high and there will certainly be a backlash coming. Hopefully we can up our game, we need to step up really.
“They’re one of the most physical teams in world rugby, there’s no doubt about that, and if you don’t stop them it’s going to be a hard day at the office and there will be a high scoreline. Whoever is selected it’s going to be a tough challenge, but I’m sure the boys will definitely step up.
“They’re not a poor team by any means, and you want to play against the southern hemisphere teams. At the end of the day, when you take to the field you want to win every game, and it will be no different against them. For them it will be the same.”
Lydiate crashed over for his first try in 59 Wales appearances before Sam Davies landed a last minute drop-goal to claim a 33-30 triumph over Japan. Rob Howley’s side have recovered from their disappointing defeat to Australia with back-to-back victories over Argentina and teh Brave Blossoms. But Lydiate reckons there is still plenty to improve upon ahead of the Springboks clash this weekend.
He said: “We need to step up really. We’ve won the last two games, which is always good, but we need to keep building on performances.
“We took a step back from the good win against Argentina last week. If we get the result next week all you’ll remember are the results, not the spluttering in performance. We want to build on each week and today wasn’t good enough, but we’ll put that to bed and train hard for next week.”
