It's been a tough week for the England players.

There is a feeling of turmoil in the camp as they have been forced to respond to criticism of their performance against the USA over the weekend while also dealing with the unfortunate disruption of captain Phil Vickery's disciplinary hearing and the injuries to Jonny Wilkinson, and his replacement in the opening match, Olly Barkley.

Brian Ashton has had a number of tricky dilemmas in deciding his starting line up. I believe he was right to name Phil Vickery in the side despite his subsequent ban - you must choose your best players until you are told otherwise. It is a massive blow that the Raging Bull won't be leading the fight up front, as he brings such immense physicality and belief to those around him when the going gets tough.

The problems at No 10 have been a nightmare.

In an ideal world, one of Barkley or Wilkinson would have overcome their injuries and been fit enough to start. Jonny is a class act and Olly was the brightest spark to come out of England's gloomy display last weekend.

However, Andy Farrell is undoubtedly talented enough and now is the perfect opportunity to prove he can take a game by the scruff of the neck and control things, as he has done many times before in rugby league.

He's yet to really do that since his conversion to union, having struggled with injuries, but he has given us glimpses that he has the ability to go with his immense physicality.

Much has been written and said about the poor England performance against the USA. In my opinion the players were spot on in their own self assessment when they admitted if they continue to play like that they will be going home early.

What was most worrying for me was our inability to change the game. We were stuck in something not even approaching third gear and seemed unable to alter the dynamics of play. Most disappointing of all is not that the players had an off day (that can happen to anyone), but the fact that we seemed to get bogged down in a quagmire of continuous slow ball.

The England players will be acutely aware of what is needed if they are to beat the South Africans tonight. The players will need to be strong in set piece play, physical in contact and at the breakdown which will then allow the half backs to dictate the tempo, possession and territory. The backs also need to give options and run with conviction and we need to be rock solid in defence. Rugby can be a very simple game when it's broken down into the different components and there's no reason to over complicate the basics in search of a hidden elixir.

The South Africans present a huge physical challenge, are dominant in set piece and took the Samoans lineout apart. Their scrum is based around the experienced Os du Randt, while their usual dynamism of the back row may suffer from Schalk Burger's absence.

Fourie du Preez and Butch James at nine and ten look in sensational form and wing Bryan Habana is the first name down on a World XV team sheet at the moment.

There's a huge history between these two sides in recent World Cups -we were blown off the park in 1999 but gained revenge four years later. There's no doubt England are up against it this week, but victory will taste like sweet redemption for all their problems.

Will Greenwood is a Heineken ambassador. Heineken are proud sponsors of the Rugby World Cup 2007.