KEY POINTS:
BLOEMFONTEIN - South Africa and a third-choice England side clash in a seeming mismatch of a test in Bloemfontein on Sunday (NZ time), with plenty resting on it for the Springboks and the visitors merely on a learning experience.
England, missing nearly 30 first-choice players because of injury and club commitments, have been playing down expectations and any significance in the fact the two sides meet in the World Cup pool stage later this year.
"I don't believe in psychological games or one-upmanship. We have a group of players over here who will be doing everything they can to make the World Cup training squad, but there is also a group of players at home who will be doing the same," England coach Brian Ashton said.
"I have not been in this job long, and I need to know by the time we are back in England about certain individuals and how they cope in a game like this in a hostile environment. I need to know which of these players can be added to the World Cup training squad."
England will arrive in Bloemfontein with a new-look side that is also battling to shake off a stomach virus that has swept through the squad.
Captain Jason Robinson, first five-eighths Jonny Wilkinson and hooker Mark Regan are the only players with more than 30 caps, while Iain Balshaw, a late replacement on the wing for the ill David Strettle, has 29. England will field three new caps on Saturday -- fullback Mike Brown, loosehead prop Nick Wood and lock Dean Schofield.
The pressure will be on the Springboks to meet their fans' expectations -- high after two South African sides, the Bulls and Sharks, contested the Super 14 final at the weekend -- and convincingly beat a side they last met at Twickenham on Nov. 25, when they won 25-14 while resting several key players.
Lock Victor Matfield, however, tried to play down those expectations.
"I do worry a bit that people expect us to just smash England in this game. They saw the Super 14 and they reckon everything is going well with our rugby," he said.
"But while the Super 14 boosted all of our confidence levels, we must not forget that the series against England will be the first time we will be playing together as a team since last year's Tri-nations. A lot of us were rested for the last overseas tour, so a lot of the combinations are playing together for the first time in a long time."
England will need another good performance from Wilkinson, who kicked them to a 27-22 victory in Bloemfontein in 2000, to upset the odds.
"This is a massive opportunity for the players and that will hopefully be motivation enough," Ashton said. "The atmosphere in the squad is good, even though they have been written off by everyone in the world, and have even been called plumbers and painters by a local newspaper."
