WALES will need a “10 to 15 per cent” improvement to take victory and level the series against South Africa on Saturday, according to Dan Biggar.

The captain also poured cold water on Sir Gareth Edwards’ suggestion that the Springboks have disrespected the tourists with their team selection.

Springboks head coach Jacques Nienaber has made 14 changes from the line-up that won 32-29 in a thrilling series opener last weekend, with six uncapped players featuring in his match-day 23.

Biggar, though, has no doubt about the scale of the task Wales face in Bloemfontein as they target a first win against the Springboks on South African soil.

“We put on a really good show last week, and in my opinion we are going to have to improve 10 to 15 per cent to get anything out of Saturday,” he said.

“I know the side we played last weekend are renowned, experienced, World Cup winners and the rest of that, but this team, you have got Pollard at 10 and some real exciting form players.

“When I saw that they had made 14 changes, I was thinking ‘who are they going to bring in’? But then you look at the team sheet and I don’t expect this to be anything other than an incredibly tough game.”

Handre Pollard returns to the hosts' side fresh from helping Montpellier win the French Top 14 title, while Pieter-Steph Du Toit is also back. Northampton star Biggar also knows all about the quality of Harlequins centre Andre Esterhuizen.

Biggar said: “[Pollard] does the basics very well, settles the team down and gives them a focal point.

“There is a notable difference when he doesn’t play and that is almost the biggest compliment you can give him, really.

“When you play against him, you have to be very good and try to keep your error-rate down, because he is the type of player who punishes errors.

“And [Esterhuizen] has been the form player in the Premiership. They have managed to swap a World Cup winner and a brilliant player in [Damian] De Allende with Esterhuizen coming in. It certainly doesn’t weaken them.

“When you put good players together under a very good coaching set-up, which South Africa have, then they are going to be pretty organised and pretty switched on.”