Danny Cipriani: I am still an England rookie

Cipriani is only five caps into his Test career and a series of mistakes in the 28-14 defeat by Australia highlighted how far the London Wasps star still has to travel to stand alongside rivals such as New Zealand's Dan Carter.

Now comes a replay of the 2007 World Cup Final against the powerful Springboks and Cipriani is happy to be under the spotlight again.

He made two brilliant breaks last weekend but neither resulted in a try and Cipriani admits England must start to register points when they reach the "red zone"- inside the opposition 22.

He said: "The more rugby I play and experience I get, the better. You can improve a lot and that's what I have been trying to achieve this week. It was Martin Johnson's decision about selection and luckily I am in the team and have a chance to try to put my stamp on the game this Saturday.

"As a team, when we reach the last 10m we have to recognise this is the red zone and we need to kill the opposition off and come away with points. I expect a lot from myself in an England jersey because it such a privilege and that's only natural if you want to get to the top in the game.

"I need to find consistency, so does the team, and we are learning a lot with every match. We need to be on the same wavelength and Brian Smith [attack coach] has been talking to me about sticking together and we have worked on this to ensure we get our fantastic ball carrying forwards into the game.

"We have a juggernaut pack and a fantastic back line and we want to create some excitement.

"I need to get better at directing things around the pitch. We did produce some good things against Australia and put together a great sequence of play. Then I executed a drop goal badly.

"I take responsibility for that and there is no excuse. I looked at the video and saw that when I struck the ball I fell away. It was a poor kick.

"I was also disappointed to only manage two out of four kicks at goal and that wasn't good enough for me. I will spend a lot of time working on my kicking in practise this week."

Cipriani is refusing to use his rapid return from an horrendous ankle break suffered in May as an excuse for those errors and, having got back four weeks early, is adamant the leg can take the demands of Test rugby.

He said: "I felt comfortable during the match and all that happened is that I got two knocks on the ankle. Even if I hadn't injured the leg, I would still have felt those bangs. It is absolutely fine and there hasn't been any reaction.

"The immediate pain of those blows was like having a dead leg and then it went away. I didn't panic."

Cipriani expects the Springboks to target him as they try to expose any frailties in his defensive play but he's quick to point out that he made 13 tackles against the hard-running Pacific Islanders. He will never be able to put in the kind of devastating tackles that made Jonny Wilkinson the best defensive No10 in world rugby but Cipriani insists he can shore up his section of the defensive line.

"I feel quite confident in my defence," said Cipriani. "There is always something I can improve on and Jonny was one of the best at making those massive up front tackles. I hope to be able to get there, although he was phenomenal and put his body on the line with fantastic defence."