Another juicy ENG vs SA battle

Taking the shape of something of a grudge match, attention will pour into Twickenham where the English will set about trying to attempt to regain pride against the Springboks.  

The last clash of the green and white jerseys will still be fresh in the minds of the players as they take the field on Saturday – a memory which will invoke feelings of bitterness in Eddie Jones’ charges and confidence in Jacques Nienaber’s. The 2019 World Cup final in Tokyo stunned the rugby world, not just in the sense that the hitherto unbeatable-looking England were beaten, but in the manner in which the Boks dismantled them.  

Something to note is that the foundation of that World Cup-winning victory was the Boks’ scrum, a scrum which still looks powerful. England, on the other hand, were not particularly dominant in the scrums against Australia last weekend with the latter’s James Slipper playing out of position at tighthead. If the English pack are not able to gain parity at scrum-time, it could be a very long afternoon for the hosts.  

As touched on above, a quick look at England’s decent victory over the Wallabies: 

After a gritty, hard-fought victory over the Welsh in Cardiff, the Boks marched on to Murrayfield last weekend where they managed to put Scotland away 30-15: 

Nienaber had the luxury of selecting a full-strength for this weekend’s clash. 

“We built up good momentum in the Tests against Wales and Scotland, and it is important for us to transfer that into our final match of the tour against England, so we opted to make only three changes to the starting team for this weekend’s clash,” said Nienaber. 

“England will pose different threats to Scotland, and with that in mind we have decided to start with Handré, Cobus and Lood. 

“Elton, Herschel and Franco have shown that they can inject energy and ignite a spark on attack off the bench, which will be handy against an English outfit that we know will be highly charged up for this match.” 

“England have made it clear that they’ll come hard at us in this match, and with a few British & Irish Lions players in their midst, home ground advantage and a new record of eight wins in a row against Australia adding to their motivation this weekend, so we know it will be a hard grind,” said the Bok coach. 

“That said, we will enter the match equally motivated, especially with the opportunity to retain our status as the top team in the world for a third successive season and winning all three matches in the Castle Lager Outgoing Tour for the first time in eight years being a real prospect. 

“This has been arguably the most challenging season for a Springbok team yet due to the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, and to finish off the year with a victory against England would be a fantastic reward for the team.” 

England boss Eddie Jones made several changes to his line-up from last week and appointed Courtney Lawes as captain in the absence of the injured Owen Farrell. 

The powerful Manu Tuilagi shifts into the midfield to partner Henry Slade while the former’s previous duties on the wing will be filled by Harlequins’ Joe Marchant.  

After missing out last week due to Covid, Joe Marler rejoins the squad and takes a place on the bench. It is likely that his services may be required fairly early on in the game to combat the tenacious Trevor Nyakane. 

With so much hinging on the forward battle, it is interesting to note that the man now in charge of England’s pack is the same one who guided the Boks to World Cup glory two years ago, Matthew Proudfoot.  

Proudfoot spoke to the press earlier this week, giving his thoughts on the Springbok forwards.  

“The players have matured, they are a lot older and wiser than when I had them, so they have grown quite substantially,” he said.  

“They are a powerful pack, they have been really successful this season, to come off the back of a Lions Test series into a Rugby Championship was a tough challenge. 

“Two passionate packs of forwards really putting their best foot forward, I think the battle for momentum starts at the scrum, whoever wins that first couple of inches at scrum time tends to be the side that wins penalties late in the game. 

“I think that first half is going to be incredibly competitive. It is going to be about two sides being accurate and building dominance throughout the game.” 

It has been argued this week that the absence of Farrell may actually work to free Marcus Smith up to play more as the sight of the former taking the ball at first receiver against Australia was a common one. With Farrell not there, Smith automatically shoulders more responsibility – against hard opposition – and one of the main intrigues of this game will be to see how the youngster manages. 

This match-up has all the ingredients of a cracker. With the World Cup not too far off, the value of the mental edge that comes with victory cannot be over-valued. Boasting the pack that they do, the Boks will be confident, but England in front of a full house at Twickenham will be fired up and still possess all the attributes of a world-class team. A humdinger awaits.