ENGLAND will be desperately keen to dent another southern hemisphere reputation when they take on South Africa at Twickenham on Saturday - two weeks after toppling world champions Australia in London.

And Sale's Jason Robinson, who ran in four tries when England swamped Romania last weekend, believes the days of the game being dominated by the 'Big Three' from the other side of the planet could be over.

''We are building for the next World Cup and I think we are ready to take on sides like Australia, South Africa and New Zealand,'' he said.

''I've never played against South Africa so I don't know too much about them other than that they will be big and physical.

''But they lost in France and we are playing well and with confidence. From a personal point of view it was nice to score my first try for England against Romania last week. In fact, it was quite a relief to get off the mark.''

If Jason doesn't know much about South Africa then the Springboks will never have seen anything quite like him before.

Silenced critics

He silenced all the doubters when he was one of the outstanding performers in the victory over Australia and, if nothing else, the Springboks will be wary of him tomorrow.

If Clive Woodward's side is going to beat the tourists then it will be down to the free running backs to inflict the damage. But, before they can do that, they have to win the forward battle.

The South Africans are always physical. They invariably have bigger forwards than the rest and whilst they may not be greyhounds around the park they are solid in the scrums and a handful at close-quarters generally.

They also have one of the world's most dangerous scrum-halves in Joost van der Westhuizen - even if, like Jannie de Beer, he has a habit of failing to honour his obligations to British clubs keen for his services.

He will have to be kept quiet but, with Martin Johnson back to lead his troops, the Boks won't get enough change out of the England pack to give Van der Westhuizen time and space.

Interestingly, South Africa have brought back Mark Andrews to the second row. He didn't play in the victory over Italy last weekend but the Springbok management know that players of his experience are crucial if they are to halt Woodward's men.

If England win, and they should because South African rugby is no longer at the peak it reached in the days of Francois Pienaar, the one regret for Woodward will be that the All Blacks, although playing all the other Triple Crown nations, have no fixture against England.

He would like to have made it three out of three against the best and many believe a tilt at the All Blacks, instead of a nonsense game against Romania, would have made a lot of sense.

Tweet