Sports Correspondent
Jake White cancelled all training sessions on Monday to give his ‘tired’ team some extra time out to recharge the batteries ahead of the crucial showdown with England at Twickenham on Saturday. This is a must win situation for the Boks. Following the heart-breaking 17-12 loss to Ireland at the weekend and after a very long day on the road on Sunday which included sitting for four hours in a traffic jam, White decided his players needed time out. As a result no training took place on Monday, and the team will start their preparations for the Test match on Tuesday at the Richmond Rugby Club. We expect the team to be relatively unchanged for Saturday with White considering one or two changes, but nothing radical. The biggest surprise could be the axing of winger Breyton Paulse, to make room for talented Jean de Villiers in the starting XV. De Villiers, who was in line to play fly-half against Ireland before a dramatic recovery by Jaco van der Westhuyzen, has been used mostly on the wing by White this year. He has, however, played several games for Western Province at centre in the Currie Cup competition. But it appears White is looking for more height in the back three. The alternative is to drop an out-of-sorts Ashwin Willemse, who is clearly off the pace after four months on the sidelines with a knee injury. White conceded that the England match was make or break for the success of his team's northern hemisphere tour. With Ireland having killed off the Boks' Grand Slam dream in Dublin, White acknowledged that beating England would salvage a measure of success from the tour. Defeat against England would mean the tour was a failure. Andy Robinsons England announced one change to his side that brushed aside Canada at the weekend with London Wasps, Joe Worsley returning to beef up the back-row. Fullback Jason Robinson will again captain England in the continued absence of injured fly-half Jonny Wilkinson. |