England have gone to some unbelievable lengths to counter the altitude this week ahead of their expected bruising clash to open their Nations Championship campaign against the Springboks at Ellis Park.
The spectre of an altitude game has long been associated with teams that come to Johannesburg and sitting at a high 1753 metres, Ellis Park gets lungs burning and often fatigues teams late in the game, and England have taken some extraordinary measures to try and counter that this time around ahead of their showdown with the Springboks.
Because of their intense travel schedule - they fly back to the United Kingdom for next weekend’s game against Fiji in Liverpool before heading to Argentina to face Los Pumas the week after, England’s strength and conditioning coach Nathan Beardsley has had the side prepare for the past few weeks on portable hypoxic generators - with their masks often being referred to as “Bane masks” in reference to The Dark Knight movie villain.
BANE-MASKS
The players wore these masks during high-intensity watt bike sessions back in England to get them ready for an intense game where they need to last the full 80 minutes.
Ellis Park: 1,753 metres above sea level.
— England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) June 30, 2026
Click below to learn more about how England have prepared for the challenge of playing at altitude as they gear up for Saturday's Nations Championship opener against South Africa 👇
While these sessions were not necessarily to try and rewrite the players’ red blood cell count, it does - according to the medical staff - condition the brain to handle sudden panic-inducing feelings of “airlessness” and helps retain sprint power under oxygen restriction.
But England didn’t just simulate the Ellis Park altitude, they went far beyond it, doubling it.
"There is a setting on the machine that can range from 1 330 metres at the lowest level to 6 500 metres. We basically worked the lads at around 3 500 metres, which is almost double what they'd expect at Johannesburg, so we're taking them higher on this protocol,” Beardsley said
England has also placed a premium on deliberate, structured breathwork under pressure to help with decision-making.
BREATHING TECHNIQUES
To counter this, the squad has been drilled in specific recovery protocols, such as diaphragmatic breathing and "breath dumps" — techniques designed to rapidly clear carbon dioxide out of the lungs during breaks in play, lineout huddles, or goal-kicking windows.
Beardsley emphasised on England’s website that the mental barrier of altitude is often what breaks visiting teams before the physical one does.
"In a rugby scenario, it's the breathlessness. Physiologically, you've got that breathlessness and you're just trying to get your breath back, but then mentally that would then stack on top of the occasion and the stature of the match. Players might have repeated bouts of defending their tryline or attacking the opposition tryline... At altitude, that's going to be more difficult,” he noted.
“The mask works to sharpen the repeated sprint power and bank the breathless feeling. You're not actually changing the physiology a huge amount, but you're preparing that breathless feeling and then sharpening the repeated sprint effect, which programmes their muscle fibres to work at that fast pace."
It all points to a fast game that England wants to play against the Boks. Will their approach work against the South African side at altitude? If it does, the Boks may well have a real game on their hands and will need to be at their best to win.