England boss Clive Woodward believes his side will have to step up a gear against the Springboks on Saturday but is convinced England have the strength in depth to complete their autumn campaign undefeated.

"Saturday's going to be a full-on Test match," said Woodward who has made only one change to the starting line-up with Ben Kay moving to the bench due to the return of captain Martin Johnson to the side.

"They have picked an awesome side. We are going to be up against one extremely dangerous and fired-up South African team."

He continued: "I know we have got a good enough team to compete. The good thing is now I know we have got depth in the squad so if we do get some knocks there is Charlie Hodgson, Lewis Moody and Ben Kay all ready and waiting.

"As for preparations this week there hasn't been much of a change with Martin Johnson coming back in.

"Even so it has probably been better than before because the team knows each other so well having spent the last month together."

Woodward's views were echoed by fly-half Jonny Wilkinson who is set to pass through the 450 Test points barrier tomorrow. We will need to match South Africa physically, otherwise they are going to show us exactly what they can do," he said.

"Undoubtedly, we are going to have to go up another gear from the Australia game two weeks ago.

"We want to keep momentum going into the Six Nations, but there will be a South African team out there on Saturday aiming to inflict the opposite effect on us.

"South Africa are a very physical team - totally within the law - which allows them to dominate and be ruthless, and we've got to go out there and match that. They are a totally committed side."

And Woodward is already looking forward to next year. In November 2002 England are due to take on Australia, South Africa and New Zealand one after the other and Woodward cannot wait for his side to be consistently taking on the world's best.

He concluded: "This time next year we will play the All Blacks, Australia and South Africa three Saturdays running and the thought of that is already sending tingles down my back.

"With no disrespect to Romania it would have been great if we could have played New Zealand this time around but that hasn't been up to me."