Saturday 16th November will be the first time these two sides have met since South Africa ended England’s 2023 Rugby World Cup dreams with a 15-16 victory.
England will be hoping to put a statement of intent down after Australia’s Max Jorgensen snatched the Ella-Mobbs trophy from English hands at the very last moment last Saturday.
The previous five encounters between these two teams have seen three matches decided by a single point on each occasion. England won two of those close encounters, but South Africa won three.
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England head into the game against the world champions with two from their last eight matches, and zero wins recorded in their last four. England’s last win came in the summer when they faced Eddies Jones’s Japan and ran out comfortable 52-17 winners before losing 2-0 in the summer series against New Zealand.
England duo Maro Itoje and Ben Earl are two of just four players to have played 800+ minutes of men’s Tier 1 rugby in 2024 (800 each, the same as the All Blacks’ Damian McKenzie and Ardie Savea). Earl has made the most carries of any player this year (160), while Itoje ranks first for both turnovers won (13) and total ruck hits (367).
The tale couldn’t be more different for the Springboks with Erasmus’s side winning seven of their last eight games and claiming the title at the 2024 Rugby Championship with an emphatic 48-7 win over Argentina. Last weekend the Springboks made the trip up north to Scotland, where they edged out a gritty Scottish side 15-32.
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As if things couldn’t be bad enough for England, Steve Borthwick will be without two key players this weekend, with their star winger Immanuel Feyi-Waboso and back rower Tom Curry ruled out after injury against Australia. Tom Roebuck (Sale) and Ted Hill (Bath) have been called into the England squad to replace the injured pair.
Meanwhile South Africa come into this game with no changes or reported injuries, and will be raring to go at the Allianz Stadium. However, head coach Rassie Erasmus is aware of the challenge that faces them on Saturday: “Twickenham will be a different challenge. That’s 80,000 people, that’s a different kind of pressure. England will be very desperate to win. They almost beat New Zealand, they almost beat Australia. It’s going to be a very, very tough game.”
