Wilkinson accentuates the positives

Although they may not readily admit it, there are sure to be more than a few English players happy to return to English soil come next week.

Yet despite another hammering at the hands of South Africa in the second Test in Pretoria on Saturday, England’s captain-for-the-day Jonny Wilkinson was placing the emphasis on the positives of an arduous tour.

Much to the dismay and bemusement of most, England actually led the Springboks going down the tunnel at half-time but capitulated in the second half resulting in another mauling.

The shift in momentum changed drastically in three second-half minutes when South Africa struck with two quick-fire tries through man-of-the-match Pierre Spies and mercurial fullback Percy Montgomery.

That shift in balance, according to Wilkinson, was the killer blow for England’s hopes of claiming a victory.

“The plan of attack was to at least keep the momentum even and hop on the front foot and put the penalties over and get a couple of tries,” said Wilkinson.

“Once that momentum had changed with a couple of quick scores against us, I would defy any side to play against the South Africans on the back foot and change things back around.”

If turnovers were the bane of England’s game last week then on Saturday it was the basic errors that cost them so dearly. None more so than in the second half when England had come out to build on a two-point lead.

What was to follow was a series of missed tackles, handling errors and a lack of discipline from the beleaguered tourists.

“The difficult part of both games from our point of view was the cumulative effect of our errors and a quick run of points totally changes the momentum of the game,” said Wilkinson.

“The South African team have already showed how good they are at punishing those little errors. Give them half a yard or a silly mistake and they are away.

“However we did manage to get onto the field a little bit of the ethos we had been looking at in constructing an organised game despite the fact we didn’t perhaps have quite as much attacking ball as we would have liked.”

Many will now talk of how South Africa will head for the vital Rugby World Cup pool clash in France with the upper hand having dealt a massive psychological blow to England.

This view couldn’t be any more diametrically opposite to that of Wilkinson’s, who believes England have taken more from this tour than the Springboks will have.

“I honestly couldn’t speak more positively about the feel of coming here, the feel in the squad day after day, the shared ambition and desire,” said Wilkinson.

“It was always going to be a tough tour and nobody was under any other illusions coming here.

“It is all about learning and using that effectively and I would say we have probably learnt more than the South Africans from these two games.

“Without this and without knowing what we need to work on as a team and as individuals then we would have been a lot worse off.”

From a personal point of view, Wilkinson is just happy to have survived the physical examination of back-to-back encounters with the bruising Boks.

Having suffered a horrific series of injuries over a three year period Wilkinson is in his first international season since guiding England to Rugby World Cup glory in 2003.

There was some concern at the merits of taking him on tour, given his track record and the knowledge of the physicality the Springboks would bring to the field.

But Wilkinson, as is his wont, rose to the challenge and put his body on the line without a second thought.

“I feel very good in myself and I am just thankful for any time I can get to be honest,” admitted Wilkinson.

“We knew how tough it would be over here and it is nice to come through unscathed especially after what I have been through over the past four years.

“It has been an interesting four years between World Cups for me and not one most have to deal with and I, along with the rest of the guys, are looking forward to building towards France.

“We can turn the disappointment of two defeats to our advantage now heading towards the World Cup.

“It has been a joy to be on this tour, it has been so positive and the desire has just been unquestionable. It has been a real part of rugby that I love, facing challenges as a team.

“Admittedly these are two challenges we didn’t over come, and at the end of the day the way the last twenty minutes went showed we were short by a pretty long way.

“But the learning we have done has been massively productive.”

By Marcus Leach in Pretoria