But White feels the poor disciplinary record earned by South Africa in recent times is proving hard to shake off and has resulted in unfair treatment by over-zealous referees eager to punish the tourists.

The bloody encounter against England at Twickenham in 2002 when the Springboks earned widespread condemnation for a shamefully violent display was the nadir of a colourful track record.

And according to White such indiscretions are proving a hindrance to the current South Africa team who he felt were on the wrong side of Paul Honiss’ whistle during Saturday’s 17-12 defeat by Ireland.

“Sometimes I get the feeling we’re paying for the sins of our past,” said White ahead of the crunch showdown with England in five days’ time.

“For five minutes of the game we were camped on their tryline and they were slowing the ball down and standing offside. Not once were they told that the next player to infringe would be penalised.

“However, every time they got into our 22 and we did exactly the same thing as them, it resulted in a lecture from the referee.”

The biggest talking point arising from the clash with Ireland arrived in the 22nd minute when Honiss awarded the Triple Crown holders a controversial try by Ronan O’Gara which left the Springbok camp fuming.

Ireland were awarded a series of penalties close to South Africa’s line and on the last of these the tourists appeared to have been caught napping when O’Gara elected to tap and go instead of kicking for touch.

But irate Springbok skipper John Smit revealed after the match he had been told by Honiss to inform his players of the reasoning behind the penalty, giving O’Gara the opportunity to strike.

An emotional White was reluctant to discuss the incident in the post-match press conference but now he is even more convinced Honiss got it wrong after reviewing the episode on video.

“We’re not going to make a complaint. You can’t change the result. If you make too much of a fuss about what happened you don’t end up with much credibility, especially if you’ve lost the match,” he said.

“It was a bad decision. After the penalty the referee said ‘time-out’, stopped the clock and told John to talk to his players about his infringement. Then he walked back to the mark and said ’time-on’ to the Irish, but forgot to tell us.

“We were still talking to each other at that point. When we looked up again they had scored. According to the laws of the game everything was done correctly but when the referee says go and talk to your players, you assume it means now.

“We have a bad image in the game so when they score because our captain has been told to talk to his players, it makes you wonder what we have to do.”

White refused to blame Smit, the 26-year-old Sharks hooker who won his 36th cap on Saturday, for failing to stay alert to the threat of a quickly-taken tap-penalty.

“I take offence when people say the try was down to the naivety of a young captain. Had Martin Johnson been standing there, the referee would not have allowed the try. To blame the inexperience of a 10-Test captain is laughable,” he said.

Flanker Schalk Burger – one of the nominees for the International Rugby Board’s player of the year award – was sent to the sin-bin in the 54th minute and White believes the back row star has become a target for referees.

“I have time to look at the Schalk Burger yellow card and I’m starting to think that someone is putting the nail into him. He’s not allowed to do things that other players are getting away with because someone has said he has a huge impact on the game,” he said.

“His work-rate is so high that he’s getting seen more often. The guy is a little bit confused because when you show him the video footage and he asks what is he doing wrong, what do you tell him because he’s not actually doing anything wrong?”