Boks boss plays down rout of England

SOUTH AFRICAN coach Jake White has warned his charges not to become overconfident after their 58-10 thrashing of England in Bloemfontein on Saturday.

White is taking a cautious approach ahead of a second Test at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday where he sees England being much stronger than they were in the opening game at Vodacom Park.

“I wouldn’t get too excited at this victory,” he said after the game. “To be honest if they didn’t lose Andy Farrell and Peter Richards before the game, they would have been a different team in Bloemfontein.

“I’m sure they’ll bounce back. They’ve had a difficult week with all the disruptions to their preparation, with a number of players not training and three or four guys being ruled out of this Test. It also can’t be easy to lose two props ahead of such a big game.”

White believes his side will play better this week, but does not underestimate the confidence his team will take from the victory.

“It is great to get a result like this over a nation like England since we will be playing them at the World Cup,” he said.

“There was a lot of expectation on us to perform, especially since England had suffered all those setbacks due to the stomach virus. The South Africans’ performance in the Super 14 would have lifted those expectations as well.”

The Boks will reassemble today, and are likely to name their team on Wednesday and White hinted there would be few if any changes.

“I’d like to keep this team together for next week,” he said. “We showed in batches how we can play, and when we played badly, it was more of a case of running away from each other, so keeping a team together can obviously improve that.”