Rugby Union: Hunt still on for answers at end of safari: Steve Bale reports from Cape Town on a few home truths for English rugby union

ENGLAND regarded their first tour of the new South Africa as a dry run for next year's World Cup - and that was precisely the problem with a journey that always threatened difficulty but turned out harder even than the direst prediction. This is shown in the simple statistic that the tourists lost more matches than they won, an unimpressive but accurate reflection of English misfortune. You start by putting all your eggs in the Test basket and then, if you do not win those Tests, you end up with it all over your face.

Beneficial though it was with a view to South Africa '95, there was too much talk of the World Cup rather than the job in hand. For the umpteenth time, England proved in their sensational achievement of winning the first Test in Pretoria and then in losing last Saturday's second in Cape Town that forward planning is best done in the very next match, or at any rate the next Test match.

Where this South African series left England in relation to the World Cup is anybody's guess. They may well be realistic challengers, but how do you evaluate a side who can destroy the Springboks one week and themselves be destroyed the very next?

They have it in them to play superbly; the first Test was an all- time great English victory which betokened a team of quality and confidence. The second Test betrayed a team unable, beyond herculean defence, to cope when the going was tougher.

Even Jack Rowell, the England manager, is not quite sure. 'Having seen England v South Africa last week and then this week, the jury is out on where England is,' he said, before announcing his intention of taking a greater share of coaching duties when England next gather, for fitness-testing in September.

Rowell would rather the reunions were more regular, but then the manager is thoroughly perturbed that the timetable - which he often reminds is inherited - of England's build-up in the return to South Africa is reckless in the chance it takes with England's chances. Hence his wish, which will if necessary become insistence, that squad members be permitted to finish next season earlier than their clubs would conceivably grant if the choice were theirs.

As far as conditions in South Africa were concerned, the opportunity of first-hand inspection - of grounds, hotels, weather, altitude, humidity and all the rest - really will pay England a dividend next year, whether or not they got the balance between sea-level and high veld right on this tour.

Thus, although all their World Cup group matches will be in Durban, a debate is proceeding into whether it would be better to descend from somewhere higher such as Pretoria and so enjoy the supposed benefits of altitude training. On the other hand, the heat and humidity of Durban required acclimatisation in themselves and in any event the participation agreement may deny England making their own travel arrangements.

This time the matches told little that was not already known. The management had resolved their Test team before ever the tour began and were probably relieved that the changes they had to make were in places where the alternatives, specifically Paul Hull, Steve Ojomoh and Martin Bayfield, were either of proven calibre or else - as in Hull's case - exploited the tour to adduce the proof.

Some of the second-teamers, the development team as Rowell liked to call them, made strides of their own. For instance, the development of the props, Graham Rowntree and John Mallett, was hugely enhanced by withstanding the incessant South African physicality.

Simon Shaw, 20, needed only two games to establish himself as a near-certain future England lock. And if there was a reluctance to risk Lawrence Dallaglio in the Saturday side no matter what the back-row injury situation, he did well to slough off the naivety of his youth.

So much for the play and the players. If England learned anything in South Africa, it was less about the strength or otherwise of the Springboks or Transvaal or Natal than the double standards that apply to the professionalisation of international rugby.

The Natal players they faced on 21 May were said to be on pounds 500 a man. Uli Schmidt, the best hooker in the country, was prepared to play for Transvaal in the Super 10 in Australia and New Zealand because they made up what he lost as a doctor in practice in Pretoria. But he no longer makes himself available for South Africa. Guess why?

It is stories such as this that persuaded Ian Beer, the Rugby Football Union president, to lecture dinner guests, including all 22 provincial rugby union presidents, in Pretoria about the 'high road' that South Africa was taking politically and the 'low road' that was open to rugby. He could not bring himself to say it explicitly, but implicit in his remarks was that the South African rugby road was subterranean.

Not that the South Africans cared. They have long since ceased the useless pretence that rugby union is lilywhite amateur, and the awkward fact for the Beers of this rugby world is that England will be left in the dim distance if the RFU pretends its players do not need to compete on equal terms.

As Louis Luyt, president of the South African RFU, tartly told Beer at the Cape Town post-match function: 'You don't believe in professionalism. You are a pure amateur. I believe in amateurism. But I am a true professional.' Point taken.

----------------------------------------------------------------- ENGLAND IN SOUTH AFRICA ----------------------------------------------------------------- Overall record: P8 W3 L5. For: 152 (11t, 8c, 26p, 1dg). Against: 165 (13t, 5c, 29p, 1dg). ----------------------------------------------------------------- 18 May: Orange Free State (Bloemfontein) . . . L 11-22 21 May: Natal (Durban) . . . . . . . . . . . . L 6-21 25 May: W Transvaal (Potchefstroom) . . . . . .W 26-24 28 May: Transvaal (Johannesburg) . . . . . . . L 21-24 31 May: South Africa A (Kimberley) . . . . . . L 16-19 4 June: SOUTH AFRICA (Pretoria) . . . . . . . .W 32-15 7 June: Eastern Province (Port Elizabeth) . . .W 31-13 11 June: SOUTH AFRICA (Cape Town) . . . . . . .L 9-27 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Tries: 2 Rob Andrew, Damian Hopley, Paul Hull, Tony Underwood; 1 Steve Bates, Ben Clarke, Rory Underwood. Leading points scorers: 58 Andrew (2t, 3c, 13p, 1dg); 22 Stuart Barnes (2c, 6p); 17 Jonathan Callard (1c, 5p). -----------------------------------------------------------------