Praise from your own team is one thing, praise from the opposition quite another. “I rate Andrew Sheridan as one of the strongest loose-heads in the world,” Naka Drotske, a former international front-row forward, said on Saturday.

“He has shown that when he is good, he is very good. He can destroy a tight-head. I consider him and Tony Woodcock [of New Zealand] to be the two best loose-heads in the world.”

Drotske, the Cheetahs coach, had in mind that South Africa intend to play John Smit, their 2007 World Cup-winning hooker and captain, on the tight-head in the series against the Lions and he does not believe that the international arena is a place to play ducks and drakes. “If there was a recognised tight-head, you would opt for him because he will give you more,” he said, which will come as music to the ears of the Lions.

Not that Smit is a negligible opponent anywhere and he started his senior career as a prop before Jake White, the former South Africa coach, switched him to hooker with the under-21s. But it was a good weekend for Sheridan, even allowing for the forceful play in the loose of Gethin Jenkins, the Cardiff Blues loose-head, during the midweek thrashing of the Golden Lions.

The Cheetahs scrum was under the utmost pressure and neither Sheridan nor his coaches could understand why their opponents were allowed to go to ground so frequently.

This tour is completely different from that of 2005, when Sir Clive Woodward picked Sheridan to play in New Zealand after only one cap (as a replacement) against Canada. Sheridan felt that he did himself justice in his five games for the Lions on that trip, particularly when he played throughout the tour with an undiagnosed cracked fibula. Now he has the experience of 32 England caps.

“I'm not trying to make a statement; you get the opportunity to play and you go out to do your best,” Sheridan, 29, said. “There's always little things you can do better. It's not for me to decide who plays in the Tests, but it is up to me to make the decision difficult.”