This autumn series has not produced much in the way of conclusive Twickenham evidence so far but the mists are about to clear. While no global prizes are on offer it feels a significant weekend as England and South Africa meet for the first time since the 2019 World Cup final. For the home side, in particular, this is the game, for better or worse, that will define their calendar year.
Defeat the world champions, currently unbeaten entering the last leg of their European tour, and there will be concrete proof of progress even in the absence of several familiar totems. Trail in a distant second and, having finished fifth in the 2021 Six Nations, the end-of-term report will write itself. There is a very decent England team in there somewhere and this would be an opportune moment to underline that fact.
Consider, too, the outlook for the Six Nations in 2022. Scotland at Murrayfield in early February, with Owen Farrell still potentially recuperating from an ankle operation, followed by a daunting March double whammy against a pumped-up Ireland and France in Paris? Little respite on offer there if England were to stumble into Christmas not entirely certain about their best line-up or modus operandi.
We have not even mentioned the lively pre-match build-up which has coated this fixture with some unusually fiery peri-peri sauce: the banning of Rassie Erasmus for his Lions video nasty, the associated South African unhappiness, the lingering regret Eddie Jones continues to feel two years after the World Cup final and the calculated ‘Fight Club’ soundbites drifting out of the home camp. Chuck all that in the pot and it is a spicy old mix.
It is certainly fortunate for England that, for once, they do not have to spend the eve of the game scrambling to react to positive Covid results. That said, the stakes have been raised by the decision to place their faith in Jamie Blamire, Bevan Rodd and Nic Dolly rather than more experienced front-row options. If the youngsters buckle it could become messy. Stand collectively firm, though, and Jones’s developmental reshuffle will have paid handsome dividends.
Because, ultimately, avenging 2019 or the Lions outcome matters less to Jones right now than finding the right cornerstones for the World Cup in 2023. If – and ifs do not come bigger – this selection can stare down the Springbok forwards it will be a coming of age triumph for many. “We’re looking forward to going into battle against South Africa,” emphasised Richard Cockerill, England’s forwards coach. “We’ll fire our own bullets and play how we want to play but there are always points in the game when you have to match the opposition physically. If they think we’ve got a weakness there that’s up to them, but we certainly don’t.”
Behind the scrum an acid test also looms in terms of this ‘new’ England outwitting a top class defence. Within the home dressing room they did not need photos of Marcus Smith receiving training-ground advice this week from English rugby’s resident jedi master, Jonny Wilkinson, to be excited about the possibilities if they can secure enough possession and play at a sufficiently high tempo. “Marcus can go on to achieve great things and we all know that,” insisted the fly-half’s teammate Jonny May. “He’s going to be a great player for a long time.”
Then again, sides who cannot compete physically up front could play Citizen Smith at 10 and it would make scant difference. Which is why, as two proud nations re-circle their wagons, there is a whiff of cordite in the air. “Physically, from a scrum, set-piece and lineout point of view, there isn’t a harder team to play against in the world at the moment,” reiterated Cockerill. “They make no apology for how they play. They almost put the gauntlet down of ‘We’re going to do this. Are you good enough to stop us?’ But it won’t be a challenge we’ll shy away from. We’ve got a couple of guys in our front row for whom it’ll be their first experience of playing against the quality but we’re very confident they’ll stand up to the job.”
The same defiant theme was echoed on the eve of the game by Joe Marler, named on the bench despite having only emerged from Covid isolation on Thursday evening. Not only has Marler barely been able to train with his team-mates but he has yet to regain his sense of taste and claims to have limbered up this week by, among other things, doing shuttle runs inside an empty chicken run in his garden watched by his wife and drinking South African red wine.
The prop’s appetite for the fray, though, sounded undimmed as he sought to compare England’s current mindset to that of early Neanderthal man. “It’s very much fight or flight….stay and fight or leg it because you’re really scared. That’s how I feel with the Springbok front rowers and their scrummaging and their passion for it. I want to test myself against the best in the hottest environment and I’m really excited about it.”
It would be entirely understandable if the Springboks felt slightly less energised as they approach their 13th Test inside five months, not including the SA ‘A’ game against the Lions in which several frontline players featured. They have still proved too good, though, for Wales and Scotland and the omission of Lukhanyo Am, Eben Etzebeth, Siya Kolisi and Damian de Allende from World Rugby’s shortlist for player of the year would have revved up all concerned even before the Erasmus sideshow flared once more.
Cockerill estimates that more than 80% of South Africa’s lineouts end up being driven, the idea being to sap the minds and bodies of opposing sides at the maul and march them steadily up the field. For Maro Itoje and Tom Curry, both Lions in the summer, the challenge is to stem that momentum without conceding the penalties that are the Boks’ staple diet.
The aerial duel will be another pivotal area with no one anticipating any variation in Springbok tactics despite Freddie Steward and Joe Marchant offering unusual expertise in that area. “I can’t see them going away from what they do,” confirmed May. “They will think ‘These guys are good in the air but we are going to prove we are better’. They are going to come straight at us, that’s what I expect.”
Game on. Among the downsides of watching rugby at Twickenham, aside from the sardine-can trains and the traffic queues on the A316, can be all those thirsty patrons whose bladders fail to hold out for 80 minutes. A word to the wise: shuffle off mid-game and you risk missing this autumn’s most eventful contest.
