THIRD TEST South Africa v EnglandHAVING ALREADY secured a series win against England, South Africa are not about to drop their guard in the third and final Test today, captain Jean de Villiers said yesterday.

“South Africa has been through some dark days when we struggled to get a win. We need to cherish the moments when we win and not take them for granted,” he said. “It’s tough to win at Test match level and if you can do it three times against the same team, (it is) a special achievement.”

South Africa won the opening Test 22-17 thanks to a dominant second-half performance in Durban, before snuffing out an England fight back to win the second 36-27 in Johannesburg.

England assistant coach Mike Catt said he felt the tourists were not far away from being able to pull off a victory in South Africa, a feat they have not achieved since 2000.

“If you look at the past two Tests, we’ve had 20-minute spells where we have let ourselves down or the opposition have really got on top of us,” said Catt.

“When the big green machine gets rolling it is very hard to stop. We need to make sure that we don’t put ourselves in those situations again.”

SOUTH AFRICA: G Aplon; JP Pietersen, J de Villiers (capt), W Olivier, B Habana, M Steyn, F Hougaard, P Spies, J Potgieter, M Coetzee, J Kruger, E Etzebeth, J du Plessis, B du Plessis, T Mtawarira. Replacements: A Strauss, W Kruger, F van der Merwe, R Kankowski, R Pienaar, E Jantjies, B Basson.

ENGLAND: A Goode, C Ashton, J Joseph, M Tuilagi, B Foden, T Flood, D Care, T Waldrom, J Haskell, T Johnson, G Parling, T Palmer, D Cole, D Hartley (capt), J Marler. Replacements: L Mears, P Doran Jones, M Botha, P Dowson, L Dickson, O Farrell, B Barritt.

Referee: Steve Walsh(Australia).