Sheridan ready to bash Boks after making Samoa suffer

1/3
10 April 2012

Prop Andrew Sheridan, fresh from pushing 41st of Samoan rugby's finest around Twickenham, today declared himself ready to inflict further punishment on South Africa, who are in disarray after losing 21-17 against Scotland.

Springbok coach Peter de Villiers admitted his team "let our supporters and ourselves down" at Murrayfield and the world champions look vulnerable to the power Sheridan brings to the Test arena after England followed up their win over Australia with a competent 26-13 victory over Samoa.

Sheridan had to battle it out with 19st prop Anthony Perenise and then deal with 22st replacement tight-head Census Johnston, one of the biggest props in the game. He said: "Census is a big lump who slams into you at the scrum and while the Springboks may not be that big, it will still be very tough.

"They are always physical and confrontational. They won't have taken kindly to losing to Scotland and will be coming at us with everything. It would be a great achievement if we can finish the autumn series with three wins."

Although England have recovered well from losing the opening Test of the month against New Zealand, Sheridan knows where England need to improve.

"Samoa caused us lots of problems at the break downs and I am sure we are going to have a lot of clean-out drills in training this week to improve our work in this area," he said. "I am sure South Africa will look at what Samoa managed to achieve and we will have to tighten things up.

"It is important to get the balance right in attack and we don't want to stifle the enthusiasm of our guys who want to take the game to the opposition but, at the same time, you need to get the fundamentals in place.

"We had some problems that needed to be sorted out and it was pleasing to come away with a good win against very physical opponents. I see the Samoans as the prototype for a rugby player because they are very powerful, skilful and agile."

Sheridan showed glimpses of the powerful ball carrying that England believe can become a key attacking weapon, although the cumulative effect of scrum work and clearing out rucks and mauls does affect his ability to explode onto the ball and batter his way forward.

"I don't try to force those situations but if an opportunity comes along to run with the ball then I give it everything," he said. "It's vital not to go looking for a ball-carrying opportunity when it's not there."

Team manager Martin Johnson will delay naming his 22 until Thursday and spend the early part of the week easing the players back into contact training after three successive Tests.

Captain Lewis Moody will return along with centre Mike Tindall, while Tom Croft is certain to reclaim the No6 jersey from James Haskell, who proved he is back to his best. However, Croft — a try scorer along with Matt Banahan — made an impact as a replacement to highlight his importance to the team.

Johnson said: "Scotland have proved anything can happen — after losing to New Zealand they beat South Africa. Now, it is up to us to be as good as we can against the Springboks.

"I was frustrated during the Samoa match but we found a way to win and had to adapt at the turnover, where they put a lot of bodies into the break down. Some of the players were a little glum after the match but that's Test rugby. Sometimes you just have to find a way to win.

"South Africa will come to Twickenham knowing that if they can win, it will put smiles on their faces. We are going to have to be smart in terms of our preparation work."

South Africa were boosted yesterday by the arrival of wing Odwa Ndungane, hooker Bandise Maku and uncapped scrum-half Charl McLeod to replace the injured wings Bryan Habana and Bjorn Basson and hooker Chiliboy Ralepelle, who is suspended from all rugby activities (along with Basson) after testing positive for a banned stimulant.

The trio have joined a squad who have a point to prove after their shock loss on Saturday. De Villiers said: "We let our supporters down and ourselves down. We didn't look after the ball in the conditions and allowed Scotland to put the pressure on us.

"We've no one else to blame other than ourselves. But the Scotland game has gone now and we're focusing on a massive challenge.

"England have been very impressive of late and will have taken a lot of confidence from their results and we know that we can't afford to make as many errors against them."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in