Any side who can stick 50 points on France at Parc des Princes are entitled to feel confident and South Africa kept up the momentum yesterday. No cat-and-mouse selection games from these Springboks, who announced a team showing just one enforced change in the back-row for Saturday's Test against England at Twickenham.

The concussed Free State flanker Johan Erasmus is replaced by Western Province's Andrew Aitken. Aitken is an interesting character who has already played sevens for Scotland and rugby league in Australia for the Western Reds, but it is the collective qualities of this South African side that will concern England most.

The new Springbok coach Nick Mallett, who was born in Hertfordshire and won Blues at rugby, cricket and bridge during his time at Oxford University, has transformed the side beaten by the Lions less than five months ago. His biggest problem is keeping the lid on the euphoria generated by the 52-10 French victory.

"I think it was a remarkable performance on Saturday but I don't want to take that out of context.

We just had a really good day and they were a bit off-form," said a generous Mallett.

"England's defence is a lot better. We're expecting a very hard game." Mallett, unimpressed by the selection policy of previous regimes, wields a less dictatorial stick than some of his predecessors and has proved adept at releasing the potential of backs like Percy Montgomery and Andre Snyman purely by positional adjustments.

For the captain Gary Teichmann it has provided the perfect antidote to the bad taste left by the Lions series victory.

Pat Duignan, the Australian-born Galwegians and Connacht centre, has been called into the Ireland A side to play Canada at Ravenhill tomorrow night in place of Jonathan Bell.