Springboks look to inflict more pain on England as ‘antagonism’ simmers

There’s been no let-up from the Springboks since repeating as rugby’s world champions.

They’ve had 11 test matches since lifting the Webb Ellis Cup on that dramatic, rain-soaked night in Paris pretty much a year ago and the Boks have won nine of them, and lost the other two by a point.

Throw in winning the Rugby Championship for the first time since 2019 and the South Africans are quite a formidable prospect heading to Twickenham for their next-to-last test of 2024.

You might think the Boks would be the last team England want to face right now after four straight defeats.

Yet the English have a score to settle. Revenge would be very sweet.

Writing a column in The Times of London, former England forward Courtney Lawes said there was “genuine antagonism” between the teams stemming from their Rugby World Cup semifinal last year won by South Africa 16-15 after a long-range penalty from Handre Pollard with less than two minutes left.

As heartbreaking as the defeat was for the English after tactically outmaneuvering the Boks for much of the game, Lawes — now retired from England duty — said it became “very personal” because of a racial slur Tom Curry alleged he heard from Springboks hooker Bongi Mbonambi during the match. Mbonambi was cleared after World Rugby found “insufficient evidence” to proceed with charges.

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Curry received abuse online in the wake of his complaint in what turned into a messy saga. He won’t be playing on Saturday after getting injured in the loss to Australia last weekend, but Mbonambi starts.

“There will be plenty of other lads in the England team who will use what happened last year to take their emotional state to another level,” wrote Lawes, who urged his former team to “make it as ugly and as confrontational a game as humanly possible.”

The Boks have shown they can deal with anything thrown at them.

As for England, these are worrying times after four straight losses and five defeats in six, capped by missing 36 tackles and allowing five tries against Australia in a 42-37 loss.

That was the second highest number of points ever conceded by England at Twickenham and it left not just the players and coach Steve Borthwick under pressure but also new defense coach Joe El-Abd, whose aggressive blitz system is facing scrutiny.

It doesn’t sound like England will retreat from it on Saturday.

“I feel like it’s such a way of defending that if there’s not a full buy-in, then cracks appear,” England center Henry Slade says. “The longer we have training, the more understanding everyone has as a group and getting on the same page, the more it can be a really powerful way of defending.”

Teammate Ben Earl, the No. 8, acknowledged fans’ patience is being tested with England continuing to squander winning positions, like against Australia and New Zealand the week before in a 24-22 defeat.

“We’ll have to go through some more hurt to find our way through it,” Earl says, “and maybe, hopefully, look back over the next couple of weeks and months and years, and say that was a really important lesson.”

With Borthwick’s win rate for his 26 games in charge at 50% since replacing Eddie Jones, Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus says his coaching rival will be feeling the heat and expects Borthwick to go back to the safety-first kicking game that served England so well in the World Cup semifinal.

“When you lose two games, even if it’s by a point or last-minute try, the pressure does start to build. I’ve been there and certainly know how quickly that can get to you. Now Steve is a bit under pressure,” Erasmus says.

“Then one normally falls back on to what works for you. They’ve been successful like that in the past, so we very much expect them to try and squeeze us with the kicking game.”

Erasmus highlighted the “massive” advantage England had with an extra day of preparation, with South Africa having played Scotland on Sunday, winning 32-15.

Erasmus continued his policy of heavy rotation this year by making 12 changes to his team for England, including recalling Siya Kolisi as captain and picking prop Wilco Louw for his first test match since 2021.

Such an approach has served the Boks well, building up a strong player base to attack the rest of the World Cup cycle ahead of a tilt at an unprecedented third straight World Cup win in 2027.

England’s thoughts are much more short term.

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AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby