Springboks to rub salt in England’s wounds
ENGLAND vs SOUTH AFRICA
Tomorrow 2.30pm
STUART Lancaster is calling on his England side to show greater resolve in their clash with South Africa, after slipping to a 20-14 defeat to Australia.
As the fixtures were drawn for this autumn international series it was quite apparent that each side England met would be stronger than the last. That’s exactly the case this weekend when South Africa trundle into Twickenham.
Dressed in their fetching new purple kit, England were made to look like plums by a weak Wallabies outfit, even at set pieces, and this too is an area where the Springboks excel under the superb leadership of Jean De Villiers.
Thomas Waldrom, Tom Johnson and Charlie Sharples have all been dropped for the Test in a bid to counter the visitors’ power.
Among others, No8 Ben Morgan and lock Joe Launchbury are set to feature, with the former in great nick after scoring a hat-trick for Gloucester last weekend.
England will need all the help they can get as the Springboks arrive in solid form having won their opening two tour matches against Ireland and Scotland.
The visitors also boast a dominant head-to-head record over England, having avoided defeat in their last 10 meetings.
The fixture finished 14-14 when they last met in June, after the three-match series had already been decided, and the nine preceding ones all went the way of the Boks.
This will no doubt be another attritional battle and one that I think England will fall just short in.
Coral are offering evens for South Africa to get the job done and that is worth taking. Likewise, spread bettors are encouraged to buy South Africa’s supremacy at 1.0 with Sporting Index.
■ Pointers…
South Africa at evens with Coral
Buy S Africa’s supremacy at 1.0 with Sporting Index