Neil Back says it was no surprise that England were heavily beaten by South Africa, but Eurosport's rugby expert is confident they will beat Samoa in their must-wing game.

I remember that when I was playing for England, I hated it when former players were critical of us in the press. So I just want to start by saying that the opinions I am giving are from a coaching perspective, and also because I care about England!

Much has been written since the loss to South Africa so there's probably not a lot more I can add. What I can say is that if one had looked at the match analytically before hand, then the way the game went, and the result, really should not have come as a surprise.

When you consider the form of England - especially away from home where they have just two wins from 17 games, against the USA and Italy – and then consider the form of South Africa going into the match, then the result was probably a fair reflection.

We all hoped, myself included, that England had a big game in them and that they would produce it against the Springboks. But it never materialised and by all accounts we could have lost by quite a lot more.

If we're honest, there was very little chance of England beating the Springboks. England have used something like 90 players since the last World Cup and do not have any settled combinations, combinations that have been given time together.

It was very difficult to watch. South Africa had a game plan and stuck to it very well while England were never able to impose their game plan at all, which should have been to play in the right areas of the field.

But we kicked poorly and when South Africa scored early our chances of implementing any kind of plan disappeared.

Interestingly, the match stats show that South Africa made nearly twice as many tackles as England which is a clear indication that England were going no where.

For me, the South Africans looked in better physical condition. I know that is unlikely, but from their body language they just looked it. They were confident that England were unable to play out of their own half.

What did surprise me was Brian Ashton bringing off Tom Rees for Lewis Moody. Rees is one of the few England forwards that can add pace to the game and that is what England needed. So I would have brought Lewis on and kept Tom in the match.

If feel for Lewis in that he hasn't been given a chance to start against Samoa on Saturday, but at least he is on the bench.

I thought Martin Corry played well in the context of the match against South Africa and think that, like Nick Easter, he deserves to keep his place against Samoa.

Easter had some nice offloads against the Springboks and was at least trying to get some go forward.

I'm disappointed that Danny Hipkiss has not been named in the starting XV for the Samoa game, though I am pleased he is in the squad. He was the outstanding centre in the Premiership last season and has that rare ability to always make ground.

Danny is also surprisingly strong and stands up well in the tackle, which I think will be vital against Samoa.

I also think it is the right thing for Andy Gomarsall to be recalled. Shaun Perry has not had the best of World Cups. He has only been in the side because of Harry Ellis's injury and while I think he is a good club player, I am not convinced he has the speed for this level of the game.

The Andy Farrell debate continues to run and I see he has been kept in the squad for Saturday. Personally, I think the RFU investing in Andy has added to coach Brian Ashton's problems.

Having talked to Danny, I hear that Andy's leadership qualities and understanding of the game are all there, but he just has not had the time to develop as a player because of his injuries.

I do not think he has been the best player in his position available to England but Brian has been under pressure to play him.

I think we will win the Samoa game because of our ascendancy in the set pieces and we should be better organised. Jonny is back and should give us better control of field positions.

But we must dominate possession and stop them from getting an early score on the board.

This is Samoa's biggest game of the World Cup and it is against the defending champions so they will be very much up for it.

As we saw in 2003, if Samoa can stay in the game then they are very dangerous and if they do this on Saturday then the pressure on the England players will increase with every minute.

But if we can do the basics well, nick a few of their line-outs and disrupt their scrum, then I think we will come through.

On another note, I'm delighted to report that Leicester had a good win at Bristol on the opening weekened of the Premiership. I didn't know that we had not beaten them away since 2000, so that makes the victory even sweeter.

Leicester may be missing a dozen or so players at the World Cup, but we have invested well over the summer to cover for these players and have developed a good game plan from the warm-up matches.

Bath are likely to provide a greater attacking threat on Saturday, but so far so good for the Tigers.

Eurosport