England v South Africa (2nd Test)
Match Preview

There have been many desperate and downbeat moments for England in their autumn campaign this year. An encouraging performance against New Zealand first up perhaps, yet the team still managed to lose by a record margin at Twickenham. Still there were a number of positives both in the overall team performance and in individual bright sparks from certain players. Things seemed to finally be looking up, until a week later when England put in what could be (and has been) described as the worst performance for many many years in their match against on-form Argentina. Seven straight losses and the squad were standing on the verge of a precipice. The media was lambasting the squad and the head coach, attacking them with the notion that in a few days they could be labelled the worst England side to ever grace a rugby pitch. The fans, having boo-ed the team off after the final whistle against Argentina , were holding their breath for the first test against South Africa , praying for a win. And a win they got, much to the relief of players, management staff and fans. Shame the performance was for the most part, just as shocking as it was against Argentina. However, a win is a win… onwards and upwards? Fingers crossed.

England will be hoping to make it eight consecutive wins against the Springboks this weekend and go into the second test having made 4 changes to the starting line-up. Starting at the front, with Perry Freshwater and Andy Sheridan out, Phil Vickery is being given his first England start in a year on the unfamiliar loosehead side. Lee Mears gets only his second start for England and replaces George Chuter. Chris Jones has finally broken into the starting XV and replaces Ben Kay and finally Andy Goode grabs the number 10 shirt in place of Charlie Hodgson who'll be out for 9 months with a serious knee ligament injury. Tim Payne and Mark van Gisbergen are recalled into the squad and take their places on the bench.

Vickery impressed in the first test when he came on and apart from adding a huge amount of experience and leadership onto the pitch he also led by example and made some fantastic charges down-field culminating in only his second England try of his career. There were shades of the England v Samoa game during the last world cup when Vickery practically saved the team from certain disaster with another 4 inch try under the posts. His selection in the team is a no brainer, and with Tim Payne's scrummaging clearly not getting a vote of confidence, under-fire head coach Andy Robinson decided to start him on the loosehead side, which we all knew would happen.

The decision to start Mears substantiates the feeling that Robinson wants to up the tempo of the game on Saturday, what with the selections of fellow tight five players Chris Jones and Tom Palmer, both of which impressed the last time they played and started for England . George Chuter while being in charge of solid lineout performances has lost a bit in terms of his recent stand out performances at loose play for Leicester . He certainly didn't do anything wrong the past three weeks, but Robinson clearly believes Mears deserves a start, and it's hard to disagree. The starting hooker is clearly under no delusions.

"We know we weren't on top form by a long way, and during the last few weeks, there has been a lot said about the losing streak. Now we've had a win, we are looking to build and try to come up with something better. I hope I can carry the ball as much as last weekend and help get us on the front foot. I am just looking forward to getting out there, to be honest."

Still, I have to admit to being a tad sceptical with the Bath hooker's lineout throwing. So excellent for Bath (albeit playing with the likes of Borthwick and Grewcock) Mears has thus far disappointed for England in that regard, losing a few more than he should be. Good luck to him though.

It was a pleasant surprise seeing the second row selected to start on Saturday. Palmer had a great debut in the starting team last week and Chris Jones was probably the stand out player for England in their Summer Tour to Australia . Mobility deemed for important than the experienced duo of Danny Grewcock and Ben Kay which is very refreshing to see. If only the back row was as well selected but clearly, you can't have everything.

Peter Richards has won the battle for the number 9 jersey, albeit bizarrely. The horrible to watch combination of a shockingly inaccurate and desperately slow pass was the order of the day for Richards last weekend. His insistence on a two step delay when getting the ball out won't cut it at International level and gives the Springbok forwards plenty of time to close the gap and get to him and the fly half. England 's tempo increased ten fold when Shaun Perry came on at the weekend and I can't help but think that Robinson has shunned the Bristol scrum half for the simple reason that he had a howler against Argentina (due in no small part to Sanderson's ineptitude at number 8 on the day). Richards will add his typical physicality and aggressiveness around the fringes though how this will fit with Andy Goode's expected territorial game plan I'm not sure.

Speaking of no brainers and Andy Goode, the fly half position was always going to be filled by that man (no pun intended… honest!). England have clearly shown huge amounts of ineffectiveness in way of an attacking threat (against Argentina and South Africa at least) and the basic skills of passing, catching and kicking were seemingly completely out of the question for the team last weekend. The common saying of ‘you have to walk before you can run' applies perfectly in this situation. It's funny, I referred to passing, catching and kicking as skills but being realistic they're pretty much the basic characteristics any rugby player should have, be it a local pub XV or certainly an international side like England but somehow these ‘skills' evaded the team. Enter Andy Goode. The man charged with controlling the game effectively, kicking for territory not to mention for goal as well as providing a safe pair of hands on the attack. Under ridiculous amounts of hostile slating from non-Leicester fans, this is Goode's time to shine. He did it against Ireland in the last Six Nations, he did for Leicester when he came on against Munster and he did it for England when he replaced Charlie on Saturday. I wish him luck. In many ways, he HAS to perform, given how the short the list of fly halves appears to be getting.

"Whatever game of rugby you are playing in, if you are a fly-half then you have got to take responsibility and lead the team, and it will be no different this weekend. It is an opportunity for me and like every opportunity when you start a game, the shirt is in your hands. If you perform well then you get to keep it. When I went on last Saturday, we needed to tighten up our game, and all I did was to go on and play the game we needed to play. A simple game plan needed to be executed, and this weekend provides a great opportunity for the team to get our game back on top as we did in various parts of the New Zealand match earlier in the month."

Apart from those four changes, the team remains unchanged. The oddity of having Noon and Tait on the field at the same time remains even though there was hardly any penetration in the first test. Cohen's been solid this autumn, but whether solid wins test matches is another question. Lewsey and Cueto were obvious choices.

South Africa coach Jake White has handed Currie Cup player of the year Kabamba Floors his debut in a rejigged Springboks back row to face England this weekend. While Cheetahs star Floors will start at number six, Juan Smith comes in after Pierre Spies and Jacques Cronje sustained injuries in the Springboks' nailbiting defeat last Saturday.

Andre Pretorius is recalled at fly-half after poor performances against Ireland and as a replacement for the crocked Butch James last week.

Performance or the win? As Will Greenwood and Stuart Barnes agreed on Rugby Club this week, both would be good; allowing England to salvage some pride from this Autumn series going into the Six Nations. 2 wins and 2 good performances out of the four games would be adequate but hardly outstanding. A win last week might certainly give the team a boost going into this game but the Springboks will be out for revenge, knowing that Jake White and possibly captain John Smit's international careers could well be over should it go the way of the home team again.

11 games to go before the World Cup.

Once again the nation hopes the team have finally turned the corner and will be back to winning ways. Long shot, but hey, who knows. Let's make it the much more positive-sounding, eight straight back to back wins against South Africa . There's a statistic for you.

Good luck lads.

England: Lewsey; Cueto, Tait, Noon, Cohen; Goode, Richards; Vickery, Mears, White, Palmer, Jones, Worsley, Sanderson, Corry (capt).
Replacements: Chuter, Payne, Kay, Moody, Perry, Flood, Van Gisbergen.

South Africa: Steyn; Ndungane, Olivier, De Villiers, Habana; Pretorius, Januarie; Van der Linde, Smit (capt), Botha, Ackermann, Muller, Floors, Smith, Rossouw.
Replacements: Ralepelle, Carstens, Van den Berg, Britz, Pienaar, Pietersen, Fortuin.

*Quotes from Sporting Life