England lost the plot during the Guinness Six Nations and, after going in as second favourites behind France, ended second last on the final table, ahead of only Wales, but Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus is wary of what his team’s first opponents of the test season are capable of.
While England got thumped away against Scotland, at home against Ireland, and suffered their first ever defeat to Italy in Rome, they did finish the competition with a flourish. They didn’t win against France in Paris, but after going in as rank underdogs they went into the lead in a high-scoring game with just minutes to go.
Maybe Erasmus wishes the visitors had held onto that lead at the Stade de France, as it would have lessened the expectation slightly and put into proper perspective the challenge faced by his team in the opening Nations Championship fixture at Ellis Park on 4 July.
But even though France did come back to win with a late penalty during a stage of the game where England showed poor game management, it was a game that did sum up what England have become - they are no longer “boring, boring England’ but an unpredictable team that managed to score seven tries away from home against the French, with a significantly changed game from what they’d deployed previously.
FLEXIBILITY A NEW ENGLAND STRENGTH
Flexibility is a new England strength and Erasmus has taken note and said that it makes them very difficult to prepare for.
“Tactically Steve is a coach who chases trends and that is always difficult to prepare against,” said Erasmus during a break in his squad’s preparation in Johannesburg.
“If I said I knew exactly what they’ll do next Saturday, I’d be lying. There will be strong Northampton and Leicester representation in their squad and they always evolve their structures. So, (given what we know about their club teams) we have a reasonable idea of what they will do, but on the day, they could do something completely different.”
Both coaches are determined to see their teams win in Johannesburg but neither of them are putting too much focus on the Nations Championship status of the game. It is a new competition introduced by World Rugby to make the one-off games played between nations in the July and November international windows more relevant, but the coaches, and not just Erasmus and Borthwick either, haven’t brought into the idea of playing for log points.
Erasmus said there’d be no thought of chasing bonus points or accumulating points for the log from his men, and Borthwick is resting his star lock and captain Maro Itoje for the trip. Erasmus too has indicated that after the England game there will be changes to his team for the following home games against Scotland and Wales in Pretoria and Durban respectively.
ENOUGH DEPTH NOT TO MISS ITOJE
Veteran hooker Jamie George has been returned to the England captaincy and will lead a team that has enough depth to it not to miss Itoje. Alex Coles was in outstanding form for Northampton Saints in the Gallagher Premiership final against Exeter Chiefs and most pundits are expecting George Martin, a highly capable player who missed the Six Nations because of injury, to slot into the gap left by Itoje in the second row.
Ollie Chessum at blindside flank will also bring grunt so England’s pack won’t feel like they are going in against their formidable opponents with no hope.
And let’s not forget either that England came within a few minutes of beating the Boks in the 2023 World Cup semifinal in Paris off a dominant forward display against a unit that was admittedly probably still a bit bruised after having to dig deep to scrape home in an equally close but way more frenetic and up tempo quarterfinal the week before.
SIYA HAS SOBERING MEMORIES OF ELLIS PARK 2018
Bok captain Siya Kolisi might also remember another game where England asserted themselves against the Boks - his very first game as skipper against a team coached by Eddie Jones back in 2018. England exploited some Bok defensive frailties brought out of the newness of many players to Jacques Nienaber’s system early on and raced into a 21-0 lead in the first quarter.
“I remember that as a very tough and emotional game. I think the emotions got the better of me. I struggled a bit and maybe wasn’t as fit then for international rugby as I am now and I remember them going ahead 21-0,” said Kolisi.
“It was a bad place to be in but that experience is what prompted me to rely more fully on my fellow players and team leaders. I remember everyone looking at me under the posts after we’d gone 21-0 down and I said ‘I have no answers’. Then I looked at the guy next to me and said ‘Do you have something to say?’
“We were learning a new defensive system and there was a lot happening. I remember Jacques screaming at us behind the posts not to stop doing what we were doing. Rassie had known me since I was 18 years old. He knew I would struggle in the beginning and he put systems in place around me that enabled me to focus on what I needed to do.”
ERASMUS KNOWS “AWESOME” POLLOCK MUST BE CONTAINED
Kolisi is of course a lot older and wiser now, and the defensive system is understood off pat by all players in the group, but the Barbarians did expose some vulnerabilities to a good offload game during a stage of the first half of last week’s game in Gqeberha.
And in Henry Pollock the visitors have a player who may be reviled by opponents and opposition fans for his flamboyant approach and celebrations but who nonetheless is a prodigiously talented player.
Erasmus has a high regard for the Northampton man of the match in last week’s Premiership final and made it clear the loose-forward is someone who the Boks would have to keep a close eye on.
Pollock himself expressed his confidence in being able to excel at Ellis Park immediately after the final in England, and he does have a good track record in South Africa - he was one of the star Saints players when they shocked the Vodacom Bulls at Loftus in an Investec Champions Cup match when he was only 19.
“Pollock is a bit like Sacha (Feinberg-Mngomezulu),” said Erasmus. “People create a lot of hype around a player and sometimes they don’t think about whether that player even wants the attention.”
In the 21-year-old Pollock’s case it is fair to say that he does want the attention, his showmanship even rankles with his own team’s fans. However, he doesn’t just talk the talk, he also walks the walk.
“He certainly does his job on the field, and that is something we are going to have to contain. His personality and how he does things are up to him and the England squad. If I was coaching him I would only look at his output, and his output is awesome,” concluded the Bok coach.
South Africa v England, Ellis Park, 4 July, 5:40pm