KEY POINTS:
Andrew Sheridan, who could be a contender for the strongest man in England, had his World Cup preparation rudely interrupted by an insect bite.
On Saturday he is expected to lock horns with the Springboks in what will be one of the most intense physical confrontations in the tournament.
"South Africa place great emphasis on the power of their forwards, so we know it's going to be exceptionally hard in the scrum," Sheridan, a lock-turned-prop, said.
"They are technically very good, they concentrate on the basics and work well together. They're big, strong blokes who push like hell."
England are forearmed.
Under their scrum coach, Graham Rowntree, they spent hours at their training camp in Portugal working on an eight-man shove.
"I'm not a great fan of talking about scrums all day long," Sheridan said, "but we've had some huge scrum sessions, man-to-man and against machines."
Sir Clive Woodward, the architect of England's triumph Downunder, believes the Red Rose brigade can surprise the Boks. "We have the players to beat them," he said. "If we do, our World Cup will take off."
En route to the Webb Ellis Cup in 2003, England accounted for the South Africans 25-6 in a pool match in Perth, and 20 of those points came from Jonny Wilkinson's boot. After he twisted an ankle in a non-contact training session, nobody is quite sure whether Wilkinson's golden boot will leave a footprint in this World Cup, but unless he makes a near-miraculous recovery, he will not face the Boks.
Win or lose, England should qualify for the quarter-finals, where they are likely to meet Australia or Wales, but World Cup champions are not in the habit of losing pool matches.
For their part, the Boks have been positively gung ho.
"There is unique pressure on us which we gladly accept," their coach Jake White said. "Pressure is probably the one thing our players handle better than anyone. There's no doubt people in South Africa believe we can win this."
One of them put his money where his mouth is, placing £150,000 ($442,000) on the Boks to win the whole shooting match.
As for Sheridan, he has recovered from the insect attack, which happened while he was training at Bath and left him in bed for five days. "Actually it was two bites on the leg which swelled up, leaving a huge blister," he said. "The consultant thought it was a wasp but I think he was guessing. Because of the strange weather some nasty insects have come over." It probably flew in from Pretoria.
- Independent
