England prepared for aerial assault

DURBAN – England are prepared to deal with an expected kicking game from South Africa in the first test in Durban on Saturday, according to England wing Chris Ashton.

Friday, June 08, 2012

Inbound Tour: 1st TestSaturdayNew Zealandvs Ireland 09:00 SS1Australia vs Wales 11:45 SS1South Africa vs England 16:00 SS1New Zealand vs Ireland 19:30 SS1International RugbyArgentina vs Italy 20:30 SS1DURBAN – England are prepared to deal with an expected kicking game from South Africa in the first test in Durban on Saturday, according to England wing Chris Ashton.South Africa will be playing their first test under new coach Heyneke Meyer and all indications are that the Springboks will persist with the kick-and-chase game that Meyer made liberal use of during his time as coach of the Bulls, a South African Super Rugby franchise.Meyer has chosen the big-kicking Morne Steyn at flyhalf and Frans Steyn at inside centre and Ashton said that he and the remainder of his team mates had down a lot of work on dealing with up-and-unders under the tutelage of assistant coach Mike Catt."We would like to say we are well prepared for it. We have definitely done enough (training),” Ashton told reporters."It is South Africa’s trademark and how they play. It is something they are really good at - kick chase and getting under the ball and running it back. It is almost a 50/50 contest with the ball being up in the air so you have got to make sure we have got support and people behind us to help us out because it is something they use as a weapon and they do it well - hopefully we will be ready for it,” he said.