Rassie Erasmus: England not fit enough for defensive system

Rassie Erasmus, the South Africa coach, has questioned England’s fitness ahead of Saturday’s meeting at Twickenham, suggesting their late lapses could be due to an inability to maintain the intense blitz defence.

Erasmus has made 12 changes to the Springboks starting XV for Saturday, with just Ox Nche, Bongi Mbonambi and Eben Etzebeth maintaining their places while reverting to a five-three split of forwards on the bench, a tactic that he leant upon for last year’s World Cup semi-final against the same opponents.

Siya Kolisi returns as captain in a back row that also includes Pieter-Steph du Toit and Jasper Wiese, while RG Snyman comes in for Franco Mostert to join forces with Etzebeth. Wilco Louw, the former Harlequins tighthead, replaces Thomas du Toit for his first Test start since 2021.

Asked for his opinion on England’s late lapses, which cost them three Tests in succession against New Zealand and then also saw them surrender a lead for a last-gasp loss to Australia, Erasmus pinpointed the blitz defence that was ironically implemented by Felix Jones, a former Springboks colleague.

England lost Tom Tombelson and Aled Walters from their conditioning department over the summer. Dan Tobin has arrived from Gloucester but the eagerness to bring in Phil Morrow from Saracens demonstrates that England remain short-staffed.

‘If we can keep the ball, it will tire England out’

“It’s not for me to comment on how another team finishes, because I don’t know their plans exactly and how they manage players,” Erasmus said. “I do know they have a big management staff and look at things scientifically. If you look at New Zealand, they had a trend like that two or three matches ago and now they seem to have turned that around.

“I know England play an energy-sapping game and we expect that. I also think that the rush defence takes a toll on them. They are rushing up five metres, rushing back five metres. That certainly puts us under pressure, but if we can keep the ball, it will tire them out a little bit.”

Grant Williams and Manie Libbok are South Africa’s starting half-backs this weekend in a back line that also features a centre partnership of Damian de Allende and Jesse Kriel with a back three of Cheslin Kolbe, Kurt-Lee Arendse and Aphelele Fassi.

Cobus Reinach, Handre Pollard and Lukhanyo Am are all among the replacements in a departure from the seven-one split that was deployed in Scotland, a tweak that Erasmus put down to England’s kicking game.

“I don’t think Steve will change the [England] game plan because of what I say here in this press conference,” added Erasmus on Thursday morning.

“They’re going to have a hell of a kicking game; it’s well known that Steve expects players to chase those kicks at 80 per cent of their max and to put pressure on you. Your backline has to have the ability to match that because the forwards can’t always get there. And you do get cramps, you do get tiredness.

“Cheslin, Jesse and Damian won’t have played in the five weeks, but they have kept really, really fit. That’s the reason we have Lukhanyo, Handre and Cobus as cover, to match their speed and running ability.”

Boks picked back line to face England before Scotland game

South Africa have highlighted their six-day turnaround from Murrayfield on several occasions this week, and Erasmus took another opportunity to highlight its significance.

“It plays a massive role,” he insisted. “You have two training days in which you must put in all of your departments, that is why we already picked the back line for England the previous week.

“Jesse, Damian, Fassi, after they helped prepare the guys for Scotland last Thursday, they turned their attention to analysing England to be on par with England because [they] have [had] a seven-day turnaround. [Those South Africa backs] have got a training day less. If you do have the same amount of training days, you have got one less recovery day.”

Repeating his trick from the World Cup semi-final, which was won by a late penalty from Pollard after the latter had replaced Libbok just half an hour into an intense contest, Erasmus also correctly predicted that Borthwick would turn to Freddie Steward at full-back.

‘Steward can be devastating when he is chasing’

Refereeing directives introduced this autumn have brought a crackdown on ‘escort running’, therefore setting up more aerial contests; an aspect of the game that Steward relishes.

“Freddie, definitely [will start],” said Erasmus. “Maybe I’m wrong, so I’m answering in case I’m right. [Steward] is one of the best in the world and now with having access to the ball when he’s chasing, he can be really devastating.

“Another thing that giving access does is open a channel for tackling a guy as they land. Firstly, there is pressure on the ruck to box-kick within five seconds. Then there are no screens allowed any more. I just think a guy like him will be very, very useful.”

The 2023 semi-final preceded allegations of a racial slur from Mbonambi, the Springboks hooker, towards England back-rower Tom Curry. Erasmus explained that the incident had not been dwelled upon at all by the back-to-back world champions.

“He [Mbonambi] was cleared [of any wrongdoing] and so he’s fine,” Erasmus said of his hooker’s state of mind. “He played [the final against New Zealand] and it’s more than a year ago now, so I don’t think that’s at all in his head anymore.

“I’m glad that whole situation was handled well by everybody involved and that he was cleared and could play the next match. Well done to everybody on the way they handled that. It certainly didn’t disrupt us.

“The noises around that disrupt that, but with the team selection and so on, we could pick him from the moment he told us that he’s not guilty.”

South Africa match-day squad v England

Starting XV

Aphelele Fassi, Cheslin Kolbe, Jesse Kriel, Damian de Allende, Kurt-Lee Arendse; Manie Libbok, Grant Williams; Ox Nche, Bongi Mbonambi, Wilco Louw; Eben Etzebeth, RG Snyman; Siya Kolisi, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Jasper Wiese.

Replacements

Malcolm Marx, Gerhard Steenekamp, Vincent Koch, Elrigh Louw, Kwagga Smith, Cobus Reinach, Handre Pollard, Lukhanyo Am.