A genuine belief from Scarbrough
As the dust settles on what has not been the most memorable two weeks in English rugby, Dan Scarbrough took time to reflect on his tour.
Having not played for England for almost four years, Scarbrough was called into the already depleted England squad as cover following illness to David Strettle and injury to Iain Balshaw. He was to go on to play a big role in the second Test, despite England eventually going down 55-22.
As the first half unfolded in dramatic fashion, according to the English scriptwriter for once, Scarbrough put in a big hit on Percy Montgomery and it was feared that yet another injury was going to force Brian Ashton’s hand.
But Scarbrough was not too concerned and recovered to score England’s only try on the stroke of half time.
“There was a slight concern but it is something I have done before,” he said.
“It was a big clash and my arm just went a little bit numb but it is all fine now and I got through the game okay.
“Hopefully he came off worse than me though!
“It was a case of right place at the right time for my try. I took a bit of a gamble really and luckily it paid off and put us in a great position going into half time.”
It was ultimately however a position England failed to capitalise on and in fact collapsed in such spectacular fashion they will now do well to recover mentally before meeting the Springboks again in France in September.
Half time in the first Test and England were dead and buried, half time on Saturday and England were leading and, according to Scarbrough, had a genuine belief that they could do the unthinkable and beat the Springboks with what was a scratch side.
“At half time there really was a genuine belief we could push on from where we were,” Scarbrough said.
“We didn’t really look at the score, it was more a case of saying lets keep on doing what we had been doing and come the end we could be in the game still.
“We needed to keep playing and keep field position after half time and back ourselves. But unfortunately we couldn’t quite do that.”
Regardless of the final score, the English camp had a resounding feeling that they were not totally outclassed by South Africa, and can actually take a lot from a tour that has been ridiculed by criticism from the day Brian Ashton announced his tour party.
The events of the last three weeks have only added fuel to the fire but those who have been involved in the tour have taken a vastly different take on the experience.
“I don’t think they were the better side on the day, it could have gone either way at half time and we thoroughly believed we could win that game,” stressed Scarbrough.
“A couple of defensive errors and we let them build up a head of steam and that’s the way games go sometimes unfortunately.
“We need to go away now and look at the positives and the areas where we strong and identify the weaknesses.
“There is no doubting there has been a lot of good to come out of this tour, there have been a few new caps who have been able to express themselves and then there is the return of a few old heads.
“You have got to look at the positives as there was a lot of good stuff out there but in the end the South African pressure just told.”
By Marcus Leach in Pretoria
