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London - England backline coach Mike Catt has warned the team to expect a "brutal" five-match, three-Test tour of South Africa.
According to the ESPNscrum website, Catt, who was born in Port Elizabeth before uprooting to Bath, has forewarned Mouritz Botha and Brad Barritt ahead of the tour.
Botha and Barritt were also born in South Africa, and Catt says he has done his utmost to brace them for the kind of abuse they can expect to receive.
"You can't prepare for it. You have to feel it," said Catt.
"Stuart Lancaster has been sending emails for the past three or four months saying 'prepare yourself, prepare yourself, prepare yourself'.
"Brad Barritt did a presentation for us last night in connection with what to expect from the country and what to expect from the people - but when it comes onto the pitch it is fierce, it is brutal.
"I remember us going down in 2000 and we played the first Test and then we couldn't train until the Thursday because we were so physically battered by it."
The first Test is on June 9 in Durban, followed by Tests in Johannesburg (June 16) and Port Elizabeth (June 23)
According to the ESPNscrum website, Catt, who was born in Port Elizabeth before uprooting to Bath, has forewarned Mouritz Botha and Brad Barritt ahead of the tour.
Botha and Barritt were also born in South Africa, and Catt says he has done his utmost to brace them for the kind of abuse they can expect to receive.
"You can't prepare for it. You have to feel it," said Catt.
"Stuart Lancaster has been sending emails for the past three or four months saying 'prepare yourself, prepare yourself, prepare yourself'.
"Brad Barritt did a presentation for us last night in connection with what to expect from the country and what to expect from the people - but when it comes onto the pitch it is fierce, it is brutal.
"I remember us going down in 2000 and we played the first Test and then we couldn't train until the Thursday because we were so physically battered by it."
The first Test is on June 9 in Durban, followed by Tests in Johannesburg (June 16) and Port Elizabeth (June 23)
