Ford driven to distraction

England assistant coach Mike Ford believes turnovers have become a scourge of modern-day Test rugby.

As if to underline the point, England's deficiencies in that critical area allowed South Africa a field day as they scored seven tries during Saturday's record 58-10 victory over the world champions.

"The damage was done in turnover situations," said Ford. "If you analyse the tries scored during the RBS 6 Nations Championship this season and the autumn internationals, I think 60% or 70% of them were scored from turnovers. They are really hurting teams at the moment."

He added: "We have got to have a mindset of when the ball is turned over, there are no excuses and we have to defend just as well as we would from a set-piece.

"The first five tries South Africa scored all came from when we had the ball first. The glaring mistakes we made gifted them opportunities."

England have arrived at their secluded training base just outside Pretoria, still dusting themselves down from the physical confrontation they encountered in Bloemfontein.

Gloucester pair Iain Balshaw and Nick Wood have already flown home due to injuries, while the tourists still cannot report a clean bill of health from the stomach virus that swept through the squad last week.

Head coach Brian Ashton will not announce his starting line-up until Wednesday at the earliest, with fly-half Jonny Wilkinson (facial laceration and bruised back), flanker Andy Hazell (knee) and stomach virus victims Andy Farrell and Peter Richards among those being closely monitored.