A third record defeat in a row for the Springboks, whitewashed after being blue-rinsed by France and Scotland, without even a try for the second week running, left the home media using such words yesterday as "shamed", "dismal" and "massacre".

But the South Africa coach Rudi Straeuli's position is not under threat and he refused to castigate his team as he did after the France match, instead sticking to his line that a hat-trick of defeats in Europe will forge a new spirit in his players.

"This team came here as boys; they're going back as men" was his post-match mantra, which will be severely tested when South Africa play in next year's Tri-nations series.

"I'm not angry, I'm not frustrated," he insisted. "It was a great game for the first 20 minutes, then we played with 14 men against a well oiled machine."

He was quick to rebut the accusations from the England camp that his side had played with malice aforethought. "Clive Woodward called it brutal last time we played. We're a physical side and so are they."

For Woodward and his play ers, and the neutral onlooker, it might have seemed that too much fighting spirit had returned, but Straeuli felt that his team showed greater courage in the heaviest defeat in Springbok history than in narrower losses to France and Scotland.

He was backed up by raw statistics: the 95 tackles his side put in as England threatened to run riot.

"Look at the players like Pedrie Wannenberg and the front row," said Straeuli, who compared his side's experience in the past 2 weeks to England's southern hemisphere "tour of hell" in 1998. "They're all inexperienced; Pedrie was capped for the first time on this tour but he played a blinder today. I think they learned a lot from this tour."

A lack of forward power to go with undoubted speed behind the pack has been the persistent Springbok weakness on this tour and Straueli's cause was not helped by the loss of both his first-choice props, Willie Meyer and Lawrence Sephaka, after leaving a dozen seasoned campaigners including Victor Matfield and Bob Skinstad at home.

He was echoed by his captain Corne Krige. "It's not a great feeling, but England have been there [in 1998]; they stayed with the same players and the same coach and today they were on the winning side.

"I was proud of the heart [my players] showed out there; it's not easy to play with 14 men for 65 minutes of Test rugby. I talked to them afterwards and said: "Remember this moment, remember how bad it feels, because one year from now you will be standing in Perth and we don't want to be in this position."

The two teams' meeting in Perth's Subiaco Oval on October 18 hung heavily over Saturday's fixture. The consensus among the Springboks and their tormentors was that the men in green will be far less green in 11 months' time. "We're not making threats," said Krige. "I'm not convinced England can play much better, but we can improve by at least 60%."

The England captain Martin Johnson agreed: "Look at the guys who are not there, the guys we've always played against like Mark Andrews and AJ Venter. They've lost a lot of that core of players, talented international players. It's difficult for a team to lose so many leaders, and it's difficult for them to tour at this time, at the end of their season. Everything is in our favour, so we should have won. If we can't beat them here we'd have no chance in Australia or away from home."

Johnson agrees that by next October South Africa will be a different proposition. "Count the number of caps in each team: they've got a lot of young guys. But there's a lot of pace there, and pace is the scariest thing in international rugby."

Jason Robinson, who received a boot to the head early on which left him too dazed to hear his team-mates' calls, said: "They've got some world-class players and if they concentrate on playing the game rather than trying to maim everyone they can go forward."