“His enthusiasm, his desire, his competitiveness are there. He smashed Rossouw twice,” said Ford. “In a perfect world my No9 and No10 wouldn’t have to make a tackle, but that is not going to happen because the opposition are going to run through that channel.

“Jonny made 14 tackles. It should have been more like six. We have to get our players into the mindset that they have to protect the half-backs. This takes organisation and it takes desire. We need to give him more protection.”

This would be all very well if it was not for the fact that Wilkinson is the last player willing to avoid any of what he sees as his responsibility on anyone else. Ford’s solution? “Jonny won’t know. I’m not telling him,” he said.

Wilkinson’s awful injury history since the last World Cup have left England’s management desperate not merely for him to stay on the field but be on the field in the first place.

So Ford definitely wants to play him in Saturday’s game, as he badly needs rugby. But such is England’s illness and injury count they will probably defer today’s selection until tomorrow or even later.

Every sniffle or queasy tummy threatens the worst after last week’s widespread gastric virus, with a couple more players, whom the coaches preferred not to identify, showing symptoms.

The infected can be contagious for 10 days after recovery and Andy Farrell and Peter Richards, forced out of the first Test, are still ill. David Strettle is out of a hospital high-dependency unit, however.

Quite how head coach Brian Ashton can persuade his healthy players they have a chance in Pretoria after their ordeal is a mystery he himself probably cannot fathom, though forwards coach John Wells had a go.

He said: “Fair play to the lads for dragging themselves up to a situation where they’re gagging for another game.”