Springbok skipper Andre Vos inspired his side to a thrilling 23-13 victory over Wales, but then confessed he wasn't happy with either his own, or his team's performance.

With South Africa due to tackle England in a northern versus southern hemisphere showdown at Twickenham on Saturday, Vos said: "I felt the team could have played better and we will have to raise our game against England. There were too many mistakes."

True, an inspired Wales at one stage threatened to carve out a famous victory in front of a fanatical capacity crowd at the Millennium Stadium, but the Springboks rallied superbly and Breyton Paulse's injury-time try killed off Graham Henry's side.

When asked whether it was one of his best performances in a Springbok shirt, Vos looked aghast.

"No absolutely not," he added. "I have to raise my own game for the England match. It is a big challenge."

Those sentiments were echoed by Springbok coach Harry Viljoen, who has seen his side win all three games since he took over from Nick Mallett.

He said: "I was not happy with the number of mistakes we made. But we showed a lot of heart at the end.

"Wales put us under a lot of pressure and there were times when I was quite worried.

"We certainly need to improve against England next week. We've got a lot of work to do before then.

"We are still a long way from where we want to be."

England coach Clive Woodward knows his team face a tough test against South Africa, especially after his team's below-par display against Argentina at Twickenham on Saturday.

Assessing the performance against Argentina, he said: "We made a lot of errors, but we deservedly won the game.

"I never thought we were going to lose, and I am now looking forward to some normal preparations against South Africa.

"There was a lot of pressure on all of us, and there were a lot of mistakes - it has been that kind of week - but I thought our forwards played well throughout, and we are relieved to have won.

"There were some wasted chances, we dominated territory and missed some obvious overlaps, but at the end of the day, we won and we won well."

Captain Martin Johnson added: "Conditions were terrible, and Argentina were at their best during the opening 20 minutes when they gave us a fair number of problems.

"Basic errors let us down, but we kept at it, and winning was the most important thing. In conditions like this, it was never going to be a great game of rugby."

However, England will be in confident mood going into the game against the Springboks, particularly after their superb victory over the same opposition in Bloemfontein last summer.

That victory levelled the two-Test series, but Viljoen is already looking beyond England.

"We have a strategy designed to take us back to the top," he said. "This is only the beginning of what we are looking to achieve.

"We are looking towards the 2003 World Cup and there is plenty we have to achieve before then."