Jones ready to face Springboks

Alun Wyn Jones is ready to repeat his Lions heroics when Wales take on South Africa on Saturday. [more]

Jones ready to face Springboks

Alun Wyn Jones is ready to repeat his Lions heroics when Wales take on South Africa on Saturday.

Jones played in all three Tests during the 2009 tour of South Africa and is set to lock horns with arguably the world's best line-out operators once again.

The Welsh tight five have basked in the glory of widespread plaudits after their performance against Australia but the Springboks present a far higher level of physicality.

But Jones feels he is nearing his best after a difficult season and is relishing the prospect of taking on Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha.

"I'm pleased with my performance but there are a few things that I'd like to work on," said Jones.

"I feel I'm getting back to where I was after the hardest season of my career. My batteries have been recharged and the management at the Ospreys and Wales have ensured that I had a full pre-season and a good break.

"Bakkies and Matfield work well with each other. Bakkies is the grunt and Matfield the brains. They've proved their a good pairing over a long time.

"We know a lot about them and they know about us. I'm not daunted at the prospect of facing Bakkies Botha.

"He has a reputation that precedes him for the right or wrong reasons. Some of the things he has done in his career he probably hasn't meant. But he is the hard man of their team."

The Springboks edged to a 34-31 win over Wales in June and the Ospreys second-row believes it was a game Wales could and should have won.

"We had that game and felt we had done enough to win," continued Jones.

"We feel the games we have lost recently have been down to our own errors rather than being completely outclassed."

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