Rugby Union: England enjoy the sounds of dissent: South Africans' farcical jumbo-size squad

DEFEAT in the Orange Free State already seems a distant memory. England enter this afternoon's critical encounter with Natal at King's Park in high confidence and good humour, not only because they are bringing a proven and developing Test team into play but also because South African rugby has greeted them in complete disarray.

The fact that David Pears - he of the dodgy hamstrings - enjoyed the intense relief of finishing yesterday's practice unscathed was a minor incident compared with the inflation of the South African squad to 57 by the addition of another 18 players to those who had been originally named.

Dissension in the Springbok camp is sweet music to English ears and it has been growing louder all week. When the original list of 39 was announced Louis Luyt, all-powerful president of the South African Rugby Football Union, suggested the inclusion of a handful of others who had been omitted and the selectors' response was to spite Luyt by adding not three or four but 18.

All this with the first Test barely a fortnight away. England will not be fooled but as Jack Rowell, the manager, laconically remarked: 'That's good news.' Particularly as England have already established what, form and fitness always permitting, their Test team will ideally be.

They step out against Natal with the obvious advantages over the beaten Wednesday side of having now seen South African rugby at first hand and also of being familiar in each other's company. This England may not have played together since beating Wales nine weeks ago but, unlike their understudies, they cannot make the excuse that they are a scratch side.

'I would expect them to cope better with the problems than Wednesday's team did, but then I would hope that Wednesday's team would cope better next Wednesday,' Will Carling, the England captain, said yesterday. As he knows full well, ready adjustment to different conditions has not been an English trait and Carling concedes that his optimism on this score is more accurately described as hope.

'I hope this lot are more adaptable than maybe England teams have been in recent years,' he said. 'I have nothing to base that on but it's a hope.' Adapt or die - on Wednesday in Bloemfontein, when the line-outs were going so badly that they might just as well have given possession to the Free State uncontested, England died.

Today, it is reasonable to expect more life. This is a menacing fixture against last season's Currie Cup runners- up (England play the champions, Transvaal, next Saturday), but the tour party were present at King's Park last Saturday when the Banana Boys (I kid you not) lost the Super 10 final to Queensland and saw nothing to alarm them then.

Mind you, Natal had been unbeaten in six matches before that and their seven Springboks give them a formidable core of quality and experience. Among them, John Allan was Scotland's hooker when they lost to England in the 1991 World Cup semi-final. 'The game has reared my Scottish blood to boiling point,' he said.

Which is quite probably the temperature of Ian McIntosh's after the selection shenanigans of the past 48 hours. McIntosh is the heavily criticised Springbok coach who is battling against an antiquated system which has a national selector from each of the six major provinces, each with a blatant vested interest. Luyt now wants to cut them to three.

The consequence of the provincialism endemic since the years of isolation and introspection is that instead of pulling together South African rugby is still pulling apart, and the coach in effect has his teams foisted on him. But who then takes the blame? Why, Ian McIntosh of course.

Natal: A Joubert; C van der Westhuizen, D Muir, P Muller, J Enslin; H Honiball, K Putt; G Kebble, J Allan, A Garvey, S Atherton, M Andrews, W Bartmann (capt), G Teichmann, A Blakeway.

ENGLAND: D Pears (Harlequins); T Underwood (Leicester), W Carling (Harlequins, capt), P de Glanville (Bath), R Underwood (Leicester); R Andrew (Wasps), D Morris (Orrell); J Leonard, B Moore (Harlequins), V Ubogu (Bath), M Johnson (Leicester), N Redman (Bath), T Rodber (Northampton), D Richards (Leicester), B Clarke (Bath).

Referee: M Franken (Kimberley).