PACE CAN TAKE STING OUT OF SOUTH AFRICA’S PACK
RUGBY evolves year on year but there are a few things that never change and that includes how to beat South Africa.
I’m mightily impressed by many aspects of this Springboks side. That was an incredible win over New Zealand in Wellington in September and they should have won the game in Pretoria a few weeks ago before Rassie Erasmus torpedoed their chances with the unnecessary subbing of Malcolm Marx and Faf de Klerk.
That mistake, hopefully, will be the making of Erasmus and he’ll learn that his decisions as the clock counts down can win or lose any match. In Marx and Eben Etzebeth, South Africa possess two of the very best forwards on the planet, incredible rugby players who would walk into anyone’s World XV.
Today we see the burly Duane Vermeulen — their star man during the first two Tests against England last summer — return to the back row and the excellent Pieter-Steph du Toit move into the second row, while Warren Whitely is back after injury at No8 and Steven Kitshoff starts in the front row.
Make no mistake, this is a powerhouse Boks pack capable of steamrollering most teams. Erasmus must be pinching himself at such an array of talent.
How England handle this lot will decide the game. But you can still see how they could be embarrassed and beaten. Their pack, as ever, is huge but one-paced compared with most at the elite level and they don’t like to be moved around.
South African sides generally don’t like to be confronted with extreme pace, speed of thought and the unorthodox. You must always aim to take South African players out of their comfort zone. Nothing has changed over the last 50 years.
All that power can be countered if you can spend the game moving the ball swiftly from scrums, rucks, mauls, line-outs and tapped penalties — and then throw in the unexpected. Turn them this way and that, disrupt their rigid systems — this Boks team has to be taken to the place they don’t want to go.
Such an approach invariably pays dividends. It demands great fitness but when their fatigue kicks in or their game is disrupted by being forced to go to the bench too soon, you will have your reward.
South Africa don’t always adapt well and with Willie le Roux and Faf de Klerk unavailable it is even more of a problem. They are instinctive rugby players and have been the catalyst for South Africa’s recent improvement and will be sorely missed at Twickenham.
England, though, must be ruthless about their absence and play with even more tempo and precision. The record books won’t include an asterisk saying Le Roux and De Klerk were unavailable.
The England line-up tells me Eddie Jones has clocked all this. It’s a mobile fleet-footed team. The back row is quick by recent England standards. Maro Itoje has good speed in the second row, Kyle Sinckler is nimble and occasionally explosive while fellow prop Alex Hepburn is mobile.
The England back three are fast and dangerous, Henry Slade has demonstrated serious gas at outside centre for Exeter this year, while Owen Farrell and Ben Youngs need to make quick decisions.
England have named the right team, what they must do is produce the game plan to execute it. Do that and England can get their autumn off to a roaring start.