DURBAN, South Africa (AP) South Africa coach Russell Domingo spoke of the need for his players to try and ignore the ''noise'' as the thud of England's big first-test win echoes all the way from Durban to Cape Town.
The repercussions for the rest of the four-match series were so significant that England captain Alastair Cook was eager to immediately talk about the second game at Newlands starting this weekend.
''If we can get our noses ahead again, it will be fantastic,'' he said. ''We've got an opportunity. Can we take it?''
England won by a hefty 241 runs in Durban on Wednesday for a rare early series lead in South Africa - its first in 11 years. But the victory did way more than just give the tourists the opening salvo.
England exacerbated problems for a top-ranked South Africa team that's on its way down. Many of the issues are not easily or quickly solvable.
In attempting to diplomatically avoid a post-match question about whether the Proteas were in decline in the post-Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher era, England's Cook confirmed that the South African decline was so.
''It's not for me to talk about the decline,'' Cook said. ''They've lost some world-class players ... they're once-in-a-generation players, so they're very hard to replace in such a short space of time.''
England's current crop - even without injured leading wicket-taker James Anderson - dominated South Africa to such an extent in Durban that South Africa may find it hard to recover by the end of this series, let alone when the second game starts on the other side of the country in a few days.
It wasn't just the result.
South Africa fast bowler Dale Steyn, the bowling spearhead, is likely out of contention for Cape Town with a right shoulder problem, just his latest injury. AB de Villiers, who has said he's struggling with the amount of work placed on him and was the subject this week of early retirement rumors, was again overloaded with batting and wicketkeeping responsibilities.
South Africa's re-shaped batting lineup is severely struggling, as indicated by captain Hashim Amla: No half-century in his last 11 innings, and just three scores over 50 in 19 test innings since he stepped into the big boots of former skipper Smith.
''It's a developing team,'' Amla said. ''Hopefully, the new year could be a turnaround for the South African team. It's been a very tough test year for us.''
Coach Domingo gave a more frank assessment of a team that is facing a cacophony of questions over its recent performances: No wins in seven tests over the last year.
''There's a lot that went wrong in this game, there's no doubt about it,'' Domingo said in Durban. ''There's a lot of questions about the batting lineup, there's a lot of questions about AB's retirement, about Dale's injury. So there's a lot going on at the moment.
''The important thing is for our team to really stay a tight unit, and try and keep the noise out, if you possibly can.''
Not so easy. England's Barmy Army of rowdy traveling fans, scarce in Durban, is expected to arrive in full force for the marquee New Year test in Cape Town. The volume will be cranked up even louder.
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Gerald Imray is on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GeraldImrayAP
