ANDY COLQUHOUN, Pretoria | Sunday 7.00pm.
MANAGER Clive Woodward believes England have still not closed the gap on rugby’s southern hemisphere giants.
England lost 18-15 to South Africa in the first match of a two-test series in Pretoria on Saturday.
But Springbok coach Nick Mallett was hugely impressed by England’s performance.
He said: ”There’s no longer any gap when it comes to England; they’re right up there with the southern hemisphere unions.”
England scored the only try of the match against South Africa and had claims for a penalty try turned down by the television replay referee.
They trailed 15-3 midway through the first half but fought back skilfully to lose by just three points.
However, Woodward believes England have not yet earned the right to place themselves alongside South Africa, New Zealand and Australia in the top flight.
”Until we win these games I won’t say that,” he said at the team’s hotel in Johannesburg on Sunday.
”The gap is closing but it’s about winning. Until we have won three or four of these games in a row you can’t say it’s closed.
”It’s no good winning one-off matches either. If we beat South Africa in Bloemfontein next Saturday and then beat Australia and South Africa at Twickenham in the autumn then we can say the gap is closed.”
England might have been celebrating a famous victory if fourth official Mark Lawrence had awarded a penalty try. He ruled that South African skipper Andre Vos’s tackle was legitimate when he pulled down Tim Stimpson as the latter appeared to be on the point of scoring.
Lawrence ruled out the claim as Vos’s tackle arrived at the split second that Stimpson palmed the ball forward.
”I’ve had a look at the video this morning and I can see the replay ref’s point of view,” said Woodward.
”From a strictly technical point of view I understand his reasons but I still think it was a penalty try.”
England hope to have flyhalf Jonny Wilkinson fit for the next match after he was withdrawn from Saturday’s game with an upset stomach 90 minutes before kick-off.
Skipper Martin Johnson and inside centre Mike Catt were also affected.
The bug mirrored the bout of food poisoning which afflicted the All Black team on the eve of their 15-12 World Cup final defeat in Johannesburg on 1995.
”It’s just one of those things, quite a few of the guys have got it but I don’t see any significance in it,” said Woodward.
”The food has been fantastic and most of us are fine. We’ve all been eating the same stuff but we’re trying to find out what it was.”
The second Test is in Bloemfontein on Saturday. — Reuters