Springboks ‘will come through the front door at you’
England preparing for full-blooded final fight Recovery will be priority over full-on training
Eddie Jones, the England head coach, is preparing his players to face a full-blooded physical assault from South Africa in the World Cup final on Saturday.
Jones has inside knowledge of the type of rugby ingrained in the Springbok psyche from his time as technical consultant to their World Cup-winning side of 2007, likening it to “coming through the front door at you”.
Little has changed down the generations, as shown in the attritional tactics used by South Africa to overcome Wales in Sunday’s semi-final, setting up a repeat of that final in Paris 12 years ago.
England do not begin their preparations in earnest until today, but on the day that they traded hotels with the Springboks, moving from their Disneyland base into a more central location near Shinjuku, the squad did have a walk-through about what awaits them at the International Stadium Yokohama.
“We know that they are going to come through the front door,” Jones said. “There are not many Springbok teams that don’t come through the front door. So we’ve got to be ready at the front door and have enough cover at the back door, too.
“Rassie [Erasmus] is a cunning coach, and has done a great job with the Springboks. We’re prepared for the unexpected. South Africa can play in different ways. You saw [scrum-half ] Faf de Klerk do 15-20 box-kicks in the game, but we know [Handre] Pollard is an excellent kicker, too. The way he goal-kicked was fantastic. He was smooth, with a nice touch on the ball and that is a wonderful advantage for them.
“So, we know they can play differently. It was a tough old game against Wales. Both the coaches and captains said they had anticipated the game to be an arm-wrestle and it was. It was a tough, exacting semi-final.
“The only thing we are really worried about is how the Springboks turn up on Saturday. They are a massively aggressive, physical forward pack. They probably played their stronger team in the second half as opposed to the first.
“They are going to be a difficult side to beat. We are going to enjoy the preparations this week getting ourselves right. We know a couple of areas that we think we can expose in them and we’ll make sure we are well prepared in those areas.’
England will have only one fullon session this week, tomorrow, as they put an emphasis on recovery from the mental and physical high of the 19-7 win over the All Blacks.
Their principal selection issue is to weigh up again the midfield options and decide if George Ford can withstand the battering coming down the No10 channel or whether they revert to the combination that faced a similar style of play in the quarter-final against Australia, with Owen Farrell switching to fly-half and Henry Slade stepping from the bench to partner Manu Tuilagi in the centre.
Jones will make his own call without stressing the players in training. The former Wallaby head coach learnt a valuable lesson from preparing that Australia side for the 2003 final against England.
“It’s always about doing less,” he said. “We’re at the end of a sevenweek tournament, so it’s about focusing on what’s going to have a significant part of the game. It’s about doing certain things right, keeping the players fresh physically and mentally, making sure they have enough to do off the field. It’s about making sure that the coaches’ discipline is right and we don’t over-coach the players, that we allow them to find their own rhythms. You don’t lack motivation for a World Cup final. Our players will be ready to go.”
Even though it is inevitably Jones who garners the headlines, he was at pains yesterday to praise the rest of his management team, who had decisive input in the all-consuming victory, be it at the set-piece or in defence or attack.
“The assistant coaches have done an outstanding job,” Jones said. “If you look at the percentage of work, I should probably give my money back, but I probably won’t. Steve Borthwick and Neal Hatley with the forwards have done a great job. John Mitchell has improved our defence. Paul Gustard did an outstanding job there, but John has given us something a bit different. The boys love working with him.
“And Wisey [Scott Wisemantel] is as mad as ever. He’s like a cut snake. He’s got a great relationship with the players, he’s fun and he’s added a lot to our coaching staff.”