Jones trusts in rookies to lay ghosts

⮞ Rodd and Blamire face fierce front-row test against the Boks

⮞ England coach insists that ‘whole team is up for the fight’

It took just three minutes of the World Cup final in 2019 for South Africa to establish their utter dominance over England’s scrum, and in that moment the destination of the Webb Ellis trophy was settled.

By half-time the Springboks had won four scrum penalties even before Rassie Erasmus had unloaded his front-five “bomb squad” from the bench as England, so magnificent against New Zealand in the semi-final, meekly succumbed to a 32-12 defeat.

It is that context which makes England’s front-row selection for the first meeting of the two sides since Yokohama tomorrow so intriguing. Losing the scrummaging battle against the Springboks was a real hammer blow to England’s pride. Yet they will go into battle pinning their hopes on a front row featuring Bevan Rodd and Jamie Blamire – two rookies with just five caps between them – against a Springbok scrummaging unit that is even more formidable than England faced two years ago.

Rodd, 21, made his Test debut only last weekend after first Joe Marler and then Ellis Genge tested positive for Covid. It was an encouraging performance, but Rodd was up against James Slipper, who was a loosehead prop playing out of position at tighthead. He can expect to come under more pressure from two heavyweight Springbok tighthead props, first Trevor Nyakane and then Saracens’ Vincent Koch.

The challenge will be equally formidable for Blamire, who deputises for the injured Jamie George, given that Bongi Mbonambi is one of the most fierce scrummaging hookers in the game and his replacement, Malcolm Marx, is arguably the best hooker in the world. Meanwhile, with the ballast of the 19st Lood de Jager returning to the second row, the Springboks will be confident of once again dismantling England at the scrum.

Events have conspired against Eddie Jones with Marler and Genge’s positive tests, but keeping faith in Rodd, a player of undoubted potential, is perhaps the biggest indication of the England head coach’s belief that he has to move in a new direction after two years of treading water since the World Cup.

Mako Vunipola was the starting loosehead in the final, but now finds himself jettisoned. George had also been omitted from the original squad, only to be handed a recall after Luke Cowan-dickie was ruled out of the autumn campaign with an ankle injury. So, now it is Blamire – who Jones described as an “off-thebench hooker for Newcastle” before he was picked for England’s summer games against Canada and the United States – who starts at hooker.

Jones has continued his “hybrid” selection policy despite the absence of Owen Farrell, with Joe Marchant, the Harlequins centre, selected on the right wing ahead of specialists Adam Radwan and Max Malins.

But the streak of inexperience, in what is otherwise a streetwise and imposing pack, explains why Jones delivered one of his most impressive media performances yesterday. He resisted the open-goal temptation to turn the spotlight onto South Africa’s behaviour following the damning conclusion of the independent hearing into Erasmus’s video criticising officials in the wake of the Lions’ first Test victory in July.

That verdict, coming in the week that World Rugby overlooked South Africa’s players in their player of the year shortlist, will have poured fuel onto the motivational fire of the Springboks. Instead, Jones’s message yesterday was directed at his own players, stoking their fires by suggesting the Springboks believed they had a “weak forward pack”. The appointment of Courtney Lawes as captain in Farrell’s absence adds to England’s sense of combativeness.

“The whole team is up for the fight,” said Jones. “I’ve never seen a team as ready to play against South Africa as this team.”

It was a rousing performance, painting a picture of England with their backs to the wall and against an opponent who does not respect them. The problem is that, privately, the same message will have been fed to the Springboks, who feel that the whole world is against them.

Jacques Nienaber’s side believe they have the firepower to run all over England. By tomorrow night we should know just how solid the foundation stones are of Jones’s new-look side. The prospect is utterly compelling.