Martin Johnson suffered a blow today as Andrew Sheridan looked certain to withdraw from the England team to face South Africa on Saturday.

The Sale Sharks loose-head prop will be replaced in the front row by Tim Payne, who will win his ninth cap.

Although England's management team are playing down Sheridan's neck problem, Standard Sport understands that Payne has already taken his place in the starting XV and will face world champions at Twickenham.

Sheridan is understood to have suffered a recurrence of the injury that forced him off the pitch during the defeat by Australia last weekend.

Payne's elevation would take the London Wasps contingent in the team to eight, with Simon Shaw on the replacements' bench - a remarkable achievement for a team who are second from bottom in the Guinness Premiership.

The loss of Sheridan is a major blow to England, who were looking to the most powerful loose-head in rugby to prove his class against the combative Springbok front row. But Payne is a solid operator, and will relish the chance to play alongside club colleague Phil Vickery, the tight head prop.

Graham Rowntree, the England scrum coach, attempted to play down any suggestion of a change in the front row today, saying : "Andrew Sheridan has had an injury with his neck but we're happy with what he's done this week. Tim Payne has been training with us. We are fine at this moment with Andrew but I cannot guarantee we won't have problems overnight."

England were pushed off their own ball in the scrums by Australia last weekend and the set piece will be vital against South Africa. Rowntree added: "To lose two scrums was embarrassing. There will be fewer resets against South Africa and there won't be as much frustration.

"I don't coach any cynicism when it comes to the scrums and I'm not making any points about the opposition. But you can switch off at times and it happens."

England's lack of scrum ball undermined their back division and attack coach Brian Smith accepts he got the emphasis wrong last week and has spent more time on counter-attacking from kicks in training.

Smith said: "We had worked on attacking from set pieces and we got quite a few opportunities in the previous match, but against Australia there was a lot of possession from kicks.

"We had worked a little bit on dealing with counter-attacks in those situations but clearly not enough time. It was a wake up call - we hadn't prepared enough for those counter-attacks."

Smith also defended outside-half Danny Cipriani, whose defence has been called into question. "Danny's defence is not a worry," added Smith. "He's a very talented player and a big threat to the opposition."

The Springboks, meanwhile, will see Jannie du Plessis come into the front row in place of brother Bismarck, while Danie Rossouw will start at flanker for the injured Juan Smit.

Saturday's game is another 82,000 sell-out and the Rugby Football Union announced today a profit after tax of £1.5million in the last financial year.

Francis Baron, the RFU chief executive, said: "It is pleasing to report that our financial performance was strong, that we invested an extra £1m in community rugby and still increased our balance sheet strength further to £141.8m."