Proteas brimming with confidence

South Africa will face their hosts, ranked three places higher than them in the global ratings, in three Tests starting in Bath on Sunday.

“It was a luxury having the players in camp for more than two days,” said head coach Elize Kotze, ahead of the squad’s departure for England on Wednesday evening.

“I’ll always complain that we don’t have enough time together before we go on tour, but the time we’ve had at the High Performance Centre has been a pleasure. We’ve worked on each facet of the game and we’ve been able to analyse the England team.”

Vice-captain Bongiwe Msomi said they were confident of their chances against their fancied hosts.

“We’ve learned a lot in the last few days. It’s been a tough camp, but it has been very productive,” Msomi said.

Although the players were prepared for a strong challenge, Msomi insisted they were not concentrating on the home side, but focusing on their own performance.

“We’re not going there to play England, we’re going there to score goals. We know we must analyse the other team and train hard, and we’ve done that, but at the end of the day we need to score goals if we want to win, so that’s our mission.”

Kotze said the 12 players in the squad were fit and had no injury concerns.

After the first match this weekend, they will square up against England at Wembley next Wednesday. The final Test will be played in Worcester two days later.

– Sapa