Kevin Sinfield urges England to ‘rip into’ South Africa in World Cup semi-final
The England defence coach, Kevin Sinfield, has issued an impassioned rallying cry before his side’s World Cup semi-final against South Africa on Saturday, warning his players to avoid ending up with “a load of regrets for the rest of your life”.
Steve Borthwick’s side head into the last-four clash in Paris as the only unbeaten side left in the tournament but South Africa are heavy favourites to inflict more World Cup misery on England, four years after their 32-12 victory in the final.
At the end of a disappointing warmup campaign that included defeats by Wales, Ireland and Fiji, England were considered rank outsiders to repeat their 2003 victory in the tournament. However, after beginning their campaign with a defiant victory over Argentina, Borthwick’s side have gone on to defeat Japan, Chile, Samoa and Fiji to stand two wins away from being crowned champions.
Borthwick’s starting lineup includes eight players who started the 2019 final while there are 13 in the 23 who appeared in the match and for a sizeable chunk of England’s squad, this tournament represents their last shot at World Cup glory.
“Rewind eight weeks and it was pretty grim for us, at the end of August,” said Sinfield. “But we want them to absolutely rip into it on Saturday night and give it everything you’ve got, otherwise you end up with a load of regrets for the rest of your life.
“I am certainly not overwhelmed. I understand the challenge in front of us. But I don’t mind being backed into a corner, don’t mind being written off, don’t mind being slammed, don’t mind being in the thick of a pretty tough circumstance. I just think we’re in a World Cup semi-final, there is a lot of good in it here, there’s a lot of things to be excited about. Coming up against them will let us know where we’re at. But for our players, they are so excited to be out there. We are talking about different personalities and characters in the group; some will absolutely thrive on the fact that we are coming up against the best team in the world.”
With rain forecast in Paris on Saturday, England have been training with wet balls in an effort to prepare them for unfavourable conditions against the Springboks. After their scrappy pool stage win over Japan was littered with handling errors, England players pointed to the humid conditions that made keeping hold of the ball so difficult.
In preparation for their World Cup semi-final, however, the attack coach, Richard Wigglesworth, explained how England were bracing themselves for wet weather.
“It definitely comes into our planning,” he said. “The lads have had some wet balls, as would normally be the case in these sorts of weeks, and talking about what it means for them in their units and as individuals. It is pretty standard for teams when the weather is going to be what it is meant to be like at the weekend.
“There will be a logistics guy on the sidelines with a bucket of water with balls ready to go into whenever we are swapping or starting a set. That ball will
be wet so we are focusing in on what it might be like to handle a wet ball rather than a dry one.”