England coach Brian Ashton says his side are ready to face South Africa in their vital World Cup clash despite the setbacks that have rocked their plans.

“The disruptions have not distracted me – we know what we need to do,” he said.

“There’s a mood in the squad I haven’t seen in the whole time since I took over. It’s a different mind-set.”

The world champions, without suspended skipper Phil Vickery and their two leading fly-halves, are huge underdogs against a confident Springboks side.

With Jonny Wilkinson and Olly Barkley both sidelined, Mike Catt, 36 on Monday, will start at fly-half, with Andy Farrell alongside him as a second playmaker and the team’s principal goal-kicker.

Ashton was reluctant to say which of the two would play where after initially naming Farrell as Barkley’s replacement at number 10, but indicated he had every confidence in Catt taking the pivotal role.

“Catty has played a lot of his rugby at 10, and has played international rugby at 10,” Ashton said, although the veteran has not played there in a Test match since 1999.

“I have no fear over these guys. They (Catt and Farrell) are both very experienced, have played in massive pressure situations before and they are relishing the prospect of showing everyone they can rise to that challenge.”

If anything befalls Farrell, reserve scrum-half Andy Gomarsall, who boasts two Test conversions to his name, is the only goal-kicking cover of any description.

With Vickery banned for the Springboks clash and their next pool game against Samoa, Ashton has reappointed Martin Corry as captain, after relieving him of the role before this year’s Six Nations.

Corry replaces Joe Worsley at blind-side flanker in a revamped back row which also sees Nick Easter take over from Lawrence Dallaglio at number eight, while Durban-born prop Matt Stevens replaces Vickery in the front row.

As well as Farrell taking over from Barkley and Catt shifting inside, the other change from the side which struggled to dispatch the USA 28-10 sees Paul Sackey come onto the left wing, with Jason Robinson switching to full-back in place of Mark Cueto.

Corry conceded that, in the circumstances, Friday’s fixture represents probably the toughest challenge of his England career.

“You have to draw strength from adversity and we had certainly had our fair share of that this week,” said the Leicester stalwart.

“It has been great for pulling the squad closer together. We had the rollickings earlier in the week, and rightly so.

“But after everything that has gone on, it is the ideal game for us. The physical challenge the Springboks lay down is brilliant, and Friday night cannot come soon enough.”

England’s second string may have been thumped twice in South Africa in June, but they did beat the Springboks as recently as last November.

But a 25-14 defeat by the same opponents the following week signalled the end of Andy Robinson’s reign as head coach.

South Africa are without flanker Schalk Burger, banned for two matches after a dangerous tackle on Samoa scrum-half Junior Polu in the Springboks’ 59-7 win last Sunday.

But they still have formidable pack, a dominant line-out, the world’s deadliest finisher in Bryan Habana and, in scrum-half Fourie du Preez, a player Ashton called “one of the most intelligent number nines in world rugby”.

They also have full-back Percy Montgomery, who will equal Joost van der Westhuizen’s Springboks record of 89 caps. As South Africa’s leading points scorer in Test rugby, he needs just three more on Friday to reach 800.
 
Montgomery is a survivor of the side that racked up 17 straight Test wins in a row from 1997-98 before beating England in the 1999 World Cup quarter-finals, and he sees parallels with the current team.

“We believed we could win every game and it is the same now,” he said.

“We have a great togetherness and we know we have not yet reached our peak. We showed against Samoa that we can score tries from tight situations, but we were not at out best that day.

“England will offer more of a threat in the set-pieces and I just hope the game opens up in the second half so that we can show what we are all about and score a few tries.”

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England: Robinson; Sackey, Noon, Catt, Lewsey; Farrell, Perry; Sheridan, Regan, Stevens; Shaw, Kay; Corry (capt), Rees, Easter.
Replacements: Chuter, Freshwater, Borthwick, Moody, Gomarsall, Richards, Tait.

South Africa: Montgomery, Pietersen, Fourie, Steyn, Habana, James, Du Preez; Du Randt, Smit (capt), Br Botha, Ba Botha, Matfield, Van Heerden, Smith, Rossouw.
Replacements: Du Plessis, Van der Linde, Muller, Skinstad, Pienaar, Pretorius, Olivier.

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