England's rookies face the biggest challenge in rugby: beating South Africa

The Springboks may arrive at Twickenham on Saturday feeling there is not much love for them beyond the borders of South Africa.

But one thing is certain: Jacques Nienaber’s side, even without their high-profile water boy Rassie Erasmus, who is banned from attending the stadium, represent the ultimate test on the international stage.

It is a status so often held by New Zealand and it is why, should England — with their rookie front row and fly-half — prevail come Saturday evening it will represent the greatest of all the victories under head coach Eddie Jones.

To date, the semi-final victory over the All Blacks in the 2019 World Cup remains the superlative all-court rugby display during Jones’ six-year tenure. But that was with an England side that had been primed for four years for that moment.

On Saturday, after two years of drift since losing the World Cup final to South Africa, England find themselves at the beginning of a major rebuilding phase that has been accentuated by a combination of injuries, Covid-19 and Jones’ decision to omit senior professionals George Ford and Billy and Mako Vunipola to take the squad in a new direction.

South Africa in contrast are an even more formidable squad than they were when they shattered England’s World Cup hopes with a performance founded on overwhelming set-piece dominance in the 32-12 victory.

Indeed, the fact that the Springboks have been angered by the sanction handed out to Eramus and the South African Rugby Union for the director of rugby’s video criticism of referee Nic Berry for his officiating in the first Test against the Lions in July, is likely to make them even more dangerous.

"Rassie's a very special guy to us," said Mzwandile Stick, the Springboks assistant coach. 'It will be more motivation for us to play even better, because we know what the gentleman has done for us, a lot of us in the team. We really care, and we will play for him for sure."

For that reason, the contest is laced with significance. A comprehensive defeat could derail England’s momentum this autumn. A victory could prove to be a catalyst for rapid progress going into the Six Nations Championship. The size of the challenge should not be underestimated.

The Springboks are at a far more mature point along their World Cup cycle. With an average age of just over 30 years (compared to 26 for England) Nienaber’s side are looking to finish their third season as the No 1 side in the world rankings and complete a clean sweep on their European tour for the first time in eight years.

This year they have beaten the All Blacks, won the Test series against the British and Irish Lions and made light work of Scotland last weekend.

It is a reflective of their outstanding depth that even when deprived of marquee players Faf de Klerk, Cheslin Kolbe, Pieter-Steph du Toit, RG Snyman and Frans Malherbe because of injury, Nienaber is still able to field a starting XV oozing with physical menace and footballing nous of the quality of midfield pairing Damian de Allende and Lukhanyo Am and the finishing majesty of Makazole Mapimpi.

But it is the scrum and the maul that remain the Springboks’ most potent weapons and their squad is devised to ensure they are able to maintain their intensity in those facets through the 80 minutes.

This is likely to see the entire front row of Ox Nché, Bongi Mbonambi and Trevor Nyakane replaced as a unit by around the half-way stage on Saturday, to be replaced by Steven Kitshoff, Malcolm Marx and Vincent Koch possibly before the half-time whistle.

The enormous challenge for Bevan Rodd and Jamie Blamire, England two rookie front row forwards alongside Kyle Sinckler, is to try to negate that scrummaging power and also help denude the Springboks of their mauling platform. It is hard to think of a more challenging entry into Test rugby.

And with Marcus Smith, also at the start of his international career, handed the responsibility to run the attack and with Joe Marchant untried and out of position on the wing, the Springboks will provide the ultimate test for Jones’ ‘New England’.

“Physically, and from a lineout and set-piece point of view, there isn’t a harder team to play against in the world at the moment,” said Richard Cockerill, England’s forward coach.

“They have a very experienced forward pack that is very well drilled in how they play — 80-plus per cent of their lineouts are driven and they get a lot of success from that with penalties and marching teams up the field.

“Other teams are physical and fast but play differently. The South Africans make no apologies for how they are going to play. They don’t change their gameplan often, or at all. They almost put down a gauntlet of: ‘We’re going to do this, can you stop us?’”

England’s mission statement this week however has been unequivocal: they are ready for the fight.

“We’ll fire our own bullets and play how we want to play," Cockerill added. "But certainly there are always points in the game where you have to match the opposition physically because they are going to have their own lineouts and their own scrum.

“We’ll have to deal with that physical challenge but we’re looking forward to it. Why wouldn’t you? There are a couple of young guys in that front row that are relishing the opportunity to see how good they are and to see how they compete at this level. We've got a forward pack that will look forward to competing tomorrow. If they think we have a weakness there, that’s up to them. We certainly don’t.”

South African red wine and shuttle runs in the chicken run - how Marler got fit again

By Ben Coles

Joe Marler has credited the unique combination of a bottle of red wine a day and shuttle runs up and down the homemade chicken pen in his back garden for helping him to return from Covid in time to face South Africa at Twickenham.

Marler went home from England's training camp at Pennyhill Park last Monday after testing positive and only came out of isolation on Thursday evening this week, returning in time to be named on England's bench against the Springboks in a huge boost for Eddie Jones' pack.

Fittingly given the opponents, Marler's preferred wine during his spell in isolation was a Pinotage Malbec blend from the Western Cape in South Africa, which costs a modest £7 per bottle.

The only snag being that Marler is still unable to taste anything. "I still enjoyed it because it, you know, zens me out," Marler said.

“My taste buds aren't back. Headline news and it's really upsetting me. My kids are fine, my wife is fine. They managed to escape it because I spent the first five days at home wearing double masks, washing my hands loads, not touching anything, not touching them and sleeping in the spare room. They somehow managed to avoid it, which is great.

"I had this chicken pen bit that I could do some running in and I've got a gym in my garage, so I kept on top of that. And then I tucked into a bottle of red a day just to keep things going and I've managed to make it back. I'm really grateful for the opportunity to come back in and try to contribute in some way.”

Explaining his symptoms, Marler added that he had a cold for the first 48 hours but aside from the loss of his taste felt normal, running shuttles "with my wife looking at me like ‘what on earth is going on here?’".

Marler continued: “I'm like ‘hey, this is what I've got to do.’ It's a bit boggy to be fair because it's on a bit of a slump. It's not quite Twickenham standard so I didn't replicate it exactly. I also do have two sets of rugby posts/football goals that I used to, like, picture myself back at Twickenham.

"Physically, I have been able to train on my own still. And the boys asked how I felt, and I said: "I feel hanging, I feel terrible." But that has always been the case. Me and exercise, and running in particular, don't marry up well. So that is how I feel regardless of Covid, those are the physical effects."

As well as his fondness for South African wine Marler has a long connection with Saturday's opponents, making his Test debut in 2012 against the Springboks, "a complete and utter blur", facing an elite front row of Tendai Mtawarira and the Du Plessis brothers, Bismarck and Jannie.

The current crop of Springbok front-rowers are just as talented, a challenge which has inspired Marler to get back in time for another game against the world champions.

"[Facing] the Springbok front rowers and their scrummaging and their passion for it - it's very much fight or flight, and I run towards the fight side of it and I love it because all six of them, and you could arguably even look at their third string front-rows, they're all world-class operators, and that's what I want to do. I want to test myself against the best in the hottest environment and I'm really excited about it.”

Marler was forced to watch England's win over Australia from his sofa last Saturday, "even though four kids were getting in the way", joking that he needed a couple of bottles of wine "to get me through" the "stop start" Test.

"I thought 'hang on a minute, as southern hemisphere teams you talk about free-flowing rugby and all that and you’re cheating as much as possible to stop a free-flowing game'. It was just hard to watch," Marler explained.

While Bevan Rodd impressed in patches on debut and starts again at loosehead, England will be delighted to have Marler and his scrummaging prowess back in the fold.