By Jason Humphries
DURBAN (Reuters) – England are prepared to deal with an expected kicking game from South Africa in the first test in Durban on Saturday, according to England wing Chris Ashton.
South Africa will be playing their first test under new coach Heyneke Meyer and all indications are that the Springboks will persist with the kick-and-chase game that Meyer made liberal use of during his time as coach of the Bulls, a South African Super Rugby franchise.
Meyer has chosen the big-kicking Morne Steyn at flyhalf and Frans Steyn at inside centre and Ashton said that he and the remainder of his team mates had down a lot of work on dealing with up-and-unders under the tutelage of assistant coach Mike Catt.
“We would like to say we are well prepared for it. We have definitely done enough (training),” Ashton told reporters.
“It is South Africa’s trademark and how they play. It is something they are really good at – kick chase and getting under the ball and running it back. It is almost a 50/50 contest with the ball being up in the air so you have got to make sure we have got support and people behind us to help us out because it is something they use as a weapon and they do it well – hopefully we will be ready for it,” he said.
Ashton, 25, has a spectacular strike-rate in international rugby with 15 tries in just 23 tests but the former rugby league player is coming off a back injury suffered on May 5 which ended his domestic season prematurely.
He had a successful return to England duty when he scored a hat-trick of tries as England beat the Barbarians 57-26 at Twickenham on May 27 and he said that his back had stood up well in the match.
“The back is fine and it has had a bit of rest. It is always good to get a few tries and get a run out like that (Barbarians),” he said.
England have not won a test in South Africa since 2000 and Ashton said that a victory in the first match of a three-test series would be an ideal start although he did not expect his team to adopt a run at all costs approach.
“The first game is always pretty hard, you don’t know exactly how it is going to go. There are a few things we can change. We can’t be throwing the ball around in the wrong areas. If it is on to run we will run it but if not we should play our own game and kick it back and get after it.”
The second test of the series is in Johannesburg on June 16 with the third and final test in Port Elizabeth a week later.