Hampshire wicketkeeper Nic Pothas reckons new South Africa coach Ray Jennings is the biggest threat to England's hopes of winning a fourth successive Test series.

England began their five-Test series of South Africa todat looking for an eighth successive victory in Port Elizabeth following their success against New Zealand and the West Indies in the summer.

But Pothas has warned Michael Vaughan's men that former Gauteng director of cricket Jennings, who he rates as one of the biggest influences on his career, will have South Africa fired up.

Jennings, 50, was South Africa's number one wicketkeeper during the apartheid years and a member of the best ever Transvaal side, the legendary Mean Machine of the early 1980s.

Since then, he has earned a reputation as an uncompromising and innovative coach - and Pothas reckons his appointment as South Africa's coach is bad news for England.

Pothas, 31, said: "Ray is like a second dad to me. He returned to Gauteng as director of cricket when I was there as an 18-year-old and while former Hampshire coach Jimmy Cook was the biggest influence on my batting, Ray helped me a lot with my wicketkeeping. He is a seriously tough individual.

"I still speak to him fairly regularly, and I was a little bit surprised when he got the job as South Africa coach because of his controversial reputation.

"He lost his job at Gauteng because of a personality clash, he's likely to rock the boat and he's only been given a short contract because of that reputation. He's a no-thrills sort of person and if the United Cricket Board of South Africa try to interfere with what he tries to do he won't be hanging round for any length of time.

"He will also demand that his players buy into his vision, which involves going into each match hammer and tong.

"Talent means nothing with him, he's not interested in players with superstar status, it's all about the team ethic and he is not afraid to make big changes."

Jennings is known to some in South Africa cricket as 'Raving Ray'. He was once charged with offering money to his players for hitting opposition batsmen on the head and he has already used coaching methods experienced by Pothas when the pair were together at Gauteng.

Pothas added: "His approach is to shock. Before he took South Africa to India for his first series last month he prepared them for the heat by taking them down a mine shaft when most people would have just taken the players to a sauna at the local gym.

"He's been preparing the players for Steve Harmison by getting tennis players to serve at them, which is what he did with me. He's nothing like John Buchanan, the Australia coach, who spends hours researching the opposition and putting videos together.

"England coach Duncan Fletcher is a combination of the two. Ray does the research that he feels he has to do but he's a very good man manager and his methods work.

"Wherever he's gone has gone he's got results - we were first or second every year when he was at Gauteng."

South Africa will be looking to bounce back from their defeat in India when Jennings takes charge of his first home Test in Port Elizabeth, but Pothas still believes that England are the favourites.

He said: "South Africa are a bigger threat with Ray in charge and England's preparation hasn't been great, their defeat against South Africa A has put them on the back foot.

"But if they recover and win the first Test, they should win the series comfortably

"South African cricket is still at a low and England have to capitalise on that.

"If England win in Port Elizabeth their nerves will settle but if South Africa come out on top their performance will go through the roof.

"Whoever wins the toss will bat first because the wicket at Port Elizabeth can become very up and down so neither side will want to bat last.

"The heat could also be a factor. I'm not a massive fan of the captain Graeme Smith but, like Ray, he has a very aggressive approach and it remains to be seen whether they can stay pumped up for a five-day Test match.

"It's okay to have that approach in a one-day game but it's incredibly hot out here, between 27 and 32 degrees, and they will struggle to be aggressive in every session. But it should be a competitive series.

"Ray only knows one way, there is no safety option - so they will go down fighting even if they lose 5-0."