On the wing: Mike Brown
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South Africa will be looking to add to their ten-game unbeaten run against England when the two nations collide at Twickenham Stadium on Saturday.
Not since the 2006 November internationals have the Boks been pipped by the Red Rose, which is a streak the English are desperate to stamp out.
Only fly-half Toby Flood was involved in that 23-21 victory at this venue and he is one of just three England players to make their debut pre-2010.
Experience is something that Stuart Lancaster is looking to instill in preparation for Rugby World Cup 2015 and it has to be said that when that tournament kicks off, his squad will have both a healthy amount of wins and defeats to utilise in the memory bank - much like the group of 2003.
South Africa meanwhile seem to be a little further down the road to satisfaction as, despite regular grumbles about the defensive gameplan, the tough Springboks are at least demonstrating the cutthroat edge that is needed to triumph in Test rugby. Their attack will improve given time.
Heyneke Meyer's team selection this week shows trust in his players - as we witnessed in the recent Rugby Championship - and it's that faith in Springboks such as Juan de Jongh and Pat Lambie that he hopes will be repaid. Lambie has been told by Meyer to display greater attacking intent at Twickenham than he did at Murrayfield, which will be music to the ears of their supporters who longed for his inclusion when Morne Steyn was at number ten.
It is a different story for the outfit swapping purple for white this coming Saturday as coach Lancaster has wielded the axe on Thomas Waldrom, Charlie Sharples and Tom Palmer, with Waldrom especially unlucky to get the chop after topping both the carrying and tackle statistics against the Australians. Furthermore it was strange to drop the Leicester number eight seeing as Premiership followers have known for seasons what Waldrom's strengths and specialist skills have been. So why now is it suddenly not what England is looking for? Maybe Ben Morgan's upcoming performance this weekend could shed some light on it.
Sharples' omission, meanwhile, is also a touch harsh as we side with former England left wing Mark Cueto's stance that if Sharples is being given an opportunity then surely one has to afford him time to bed into the set-up. His place goes to Harlequins full-back Mike Brown, someone I have long supported to wear England's fifteen jersey because of the threat he poses both at the back and also when he appears up in the first line of attack. However, to play him on the wing is another bold move as while it may help negate South Africa's kicking plan, it will limit England's wide threat. "We have picked a team that will give us the best chance of beating South Africa," Lancaster said after also naming lock Joe Launchbury.
Does that mean England will be bombarding Zane Kirchner? The selection of Ben Youngs ahead of their final dropped player, Danny Care, hints at yes. Consequently we shouldn't expect anywhere near a classic fixture at Twickenham this weekend and the likelihood of tries being scored is pretty much summed up by the "No Try-Scorer" betting option being fourth on the bookies' list behind Chris Ashton, Francois Hougaard and JP Pietersen.
If Pietersen - not on press conference duty this week we might add - was to cross the line on Saturday then it would see him overtake wing Chester Williams in the Springboks' try-scoring list while Jean de Villiers will pass Bryan Habana on 83 caps to move behind Joost van der Westhuizen (89). Personal milestones aside though and it will be the all-important result that matters as England hope for a lift while the Springboks go for eleven straight.
Ones to watch:
For England: Obvious backline candidates are Ben Youngs and Mike Brown, with both's kicking game set to play a part in how things materialise. However we go for Ben Morgan and Alex Corbisiero as the England forward duo have a lot of weight on their shoulders this weekend. Morgan made certain Stuart Lancaster could not overlook him with three tries in the LV= Cup while loosehead Corbisiero has to get on top of Bok Jannie du Plessis.
For South Africa: Rain is expected on Saturday so putting their pack in the right areas for direct running will be key from Ruan Pienaar and Patrick Lambie. The duo have class in abundance with power runners like Willem Alberts and Duane Vermuelen to call upon, the territorial gameplan is expected to be another area of importance. How can we ignore Adriaan Strauss' form too as the faith shown in the vice-captain has paid off in spades.
Head-to-head: Despite being in the news for alleged contact with the eye area at Murrayfield, Eben Etzebeth was subsequently cleared of all wrongdoing and is ready to take to the field against England's newest face Joe Launchbury. The young Wasps lock has rave reviews and has definitely demonstrated he has what it takes at the international level when coming off the replacements bench in recent weeks, so their battle is one to keep tabs on. Etzebeth is tough customer so Launchbury must front up. Meanwhile the back-row battle also excites as six high-quality loose forwards go toe-to-toe in what will be a critical area at HQ.
Recent results:
2012: 14-14 draw in Port Elizabeth
2012: South Africa won 36-27 in Johannesburg
2012: South Africa won 22-17 in Durban
2010: South Africa won 21-11 in London
2008: South Africa won 42-6 in London
2007: South Africa won 15-6 in Paris
2007: South Africa won 36-0 in Paris
2007: South Africa won 55-22 in Pretoria
2007: South Africa won 58-10 in Bloemfontein
2006: South Africa won 25-14 in London
2006: England won 23-21 in London
2004: England won 32-16 in London
2003: England won 25-6 in Perth
Prediction: The talk coming out of South Africa's camp is of tired bodies and limited training sessions which, while believable after a long, arduous year, will surely be put to one side in their season finale. Both sides are struggling to show much in an attacking sense but last week the Springboks definitely had more to smile about than England. And with rain set to fall at Twickenham, I just feel the powerful Springboks may edge it by 5 on Saturday!
The teams:
England: 15 Alex Goode, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Manu Tuilagi, 12 Brad Barritt, 11 Mike Brown, 10 Toby Flood, 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Ben Morgan, 7 Chris Robshaw (c), 6 Tom Wood, 5 Geoff Parling, 4 Joe Launchbury, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Tom Youngs, 1 Alex Corbisiero.
Replacements: 16 David Paice, 17 David Wilson, 18 Mako Vunipola, 19 Mouritz Botha, 20 James Haskell, 21 Danny Care, 22 Owen Farrell, 23 Jonathan Joseph.
South Africa: 15 Zane Kirchner, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Juan de Jongh, 12 Jean de Villiers (c), 11 Francois Hougaard, 10 Pat Lambie, 9 Ruan Pienaar, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Willem Alberts, 6 Francois Louw, 5 Juandré Kruger, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Adriaan Strauss, 1 Gurthrö Steenkamp.
Replacements: 16 Schalk Brits, 17 Heinke van der Merwe, 18 Pat Cilliers, 19 Flip van der Merwe, 20 Marcell Coetzee, 21 Elton Jantjies, 22 Jaco Taute, 23 Lwazi Mvovo.
Date: Saturday 24 November
Venue: Twickenham Stadium, London
Kick-off: 14:30 GMT (16:30 SA time)
Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
Assistant referees: Glen Jackson (New Zealand), Peter Fitzgibbon (Ireland)
Television match official: Jim Yuille (Scotland)
By Adam Kyriacou
@PlanetRugbyAK
Comments
rolf says...
jaystarr - there is a space limit here?
And you've been testing it?
Yopu are fun.
I am afraid though, even allowed to run wild, Lambie & JdJ wont live up to your expectations.
Theres is still JdV in the way plus: It takes some time to adopt and execute a new style. Happy though, they might start to work on it.
Posted 11:53 23rd November 2012
froggy73 says...
If you like quick and exciting rugby, with blind passes and "chisteras", then you'd better move away.
If you fancy blood and tension, and a few yellow cards, they this game might be for you !
Posted 11:12 23rd November 2012
martinmarais78 says...
Hopefully a good game despite the rain predicted.
Well at least a grin comes to face imagining old Daaikak Daibok and his England buddies sitting somewhere on mud island in the rain cheering on England! Hopefully an English lad can give him a good 'klap' everytime his identity crisis comes out and he start cheering the Boks! :)
Daaikak, I will be watching the game with a couple of my SAFFA buddies having a braai in the SUN dipping into the pool every now and then!
Posted 10:59 23rd November 2012
JayStarr says...
@ rolf: As for Zane Kirchner - he's a donkey. No, really - he's a sub species of the donkey family... Doncinus Zenuskickinus. Even though we'll never be the no.1 team in the world with him at full-back, he'll be ok for this game I think. He can't run like a race horse, but when he gets a pass he can bash through people and fall over (which will do - as long as he holds onto the ball) and when he is kicked to he can kick back as hard as a, well, donkey. Which will also do for this game. So as long as he doesn't start eating the grass, I think he'll be fine...
Posted 10:59 23rd November 2012
jestnation says...
Unlikely to be a pretty game.
Particularly given the weather forecast and an England selection the suggests we want to play them at their own game.
@JamieTheProp makes a great point about the scrum in the Aussie game.
Youngs was constantly being driven away from his props leaving horrible gaps in the front row. Corbs will make a difference but the biggest problems came from the Aussie hooker getting between Youngs and DC. Hopefully Rowntree has been working on that all week.
Our bigest problems agains the aussies was poor decision making and niavety.
Forget about the penalty decisions for a minute and wonder how it took us 60 minutes to realise that the best way to prevent Hooper from nicking the ball off the floor was by not puting it on the bloody floor in the first place!
Against the saffas we need to do the opposite. They don't have a fetcher so let's use the ground. Robshaw is no McCaw but snaffled some serious turnover ball against them in the summer.
Theirs been a lot of painfully macho talk about the matching them physically this week but the one are where this will be key is the collisions at the breakdown.
Solid set piece + aggressive clearing at the breakdown + turnovers + sensible decision making = England win.
I CAN DREAM CANT I!!!!!
Posted 10:56 23rd November 2012
JayStarr says...
At first I though England would take this one. I actually think Lancaster's changes are good ones against us - especially the omission of Waldrom, who is fat and slow for a loose-forward by South African standards (I think he is over-rated anyway)... The inclusion of Haskell is also a good one - he has the necessary edge and knows our players from Super Rugby (where he did very well). England will also be smarting from a bad loss last week, and they'll be confident they can beat us due to their good perfromance in SA in the last test. On top of all of this the Springboks have been looking VERY lame and predictable on this tour...
However, I was very surprised by some things HM said this week. I must give him credit after all my criticism, because there are signs that he is learning and changing. There were 4 things he said/did that gave me new hope:
1) he admitted that at this level you can't just run through your opponents
2) he not only selected but also stuck with Patrick Lambie - after initially saying he only considers him as a fullback
3) and the one that made me fall off my chair - he told Lambie he was standing TOO DEEP and wants him to play FLATTER like he always does (play your OWN way - from HM!? HALLELUJAH!)
4) and after not making the impact required from a fly-half coming from the bench, he dropped Morne Steyn for Elton Jantjies !
FINALLY! Common sense! So I not only have new-found hope, but also new found respect for HM for being willing to change...
The fact that he basically told Lambie "play your natural game, play flat, get the backline going" and also stuck to Juan de Jongh makes me think we might see a different Bok team on Saturday from the last two weeks. The players who want to run will get the ball now... and maybe everyone will finally see why we have been raving about Lambie and De Jongh for so long.
Boks by 8!
Posted 10:44 23rd November 2012
JayStarr says...
@ rolf: It's not that bad ! But yes, it's not as good as my posts either... But then, why would they pay me if I write on here for free? ;P
(which will follow as soon as PR allows longer posts to get through... grrr)
Posted 10:43 23rd November 2012
Wallaroo says...
@ArmchairGeneral hahahahahah, seriously, hahahahaha, no, no, no mate, hahahahaha. What the hell are you trying to do, incite a war between APoliticalView1 and BokAggressor.
Bash, kick, kick, bash, bash, kick. Someone in the grandstands shouts RUN, both teams pause, think about it and say nah, kick again and again and again, bash ............
Final score England 12 - Boks 12
Posted 10:28 23rd November 2012
rugby_rockstar says...
Preest, I don't think it'll be boring. It'll be like a horror movie. SA don't like England, They took the beatings handed out by Johnno and co personally and they're still out to extract blood 8 years later, I admire that to be honest. They'll be more motivated for this match than any other on this tour and the rugby club showing the 2002 53-3 drubbing will fire them up even futher. I'm expecting to see the springboks live up to their legacy.
England, school starts at 2:30pm, learn well. Forwards win matches.
Posted 10:25 23rd November 2012
rugby_rockstar says...
MIKE BROWN, FASTER THAN A SPEEDING TORTOIS!
Yes I agree he has a terrific attitude and works really hard, but is he as good on the wing as his opposite number? Is he as good as any internation winger that England will come up against now or at the rugy world cup in 2015? No. If he stays on the wing Vs the All Blacks then his pace is going to get shown up.
This selection smacks of Lancaster trying to keep Brown happy. It's not going to help England get any better though.
Posted 10:13 23rd November 2012
rolf says...
Jeez, PR, cant you afford to employ qualified journalists?
This article is mistakeridden and its quality so much like a fanzine, you could as well have invited Jay Starr to contribute.
At least then we would have leraned a bit more about what to expect from the boks (and why Zane Kirchners selection is an error).
Still: Looking very much forward to that game.
Posted 08:41 23rd November 2012
ArmchairGeneral says...
Head to head Launch v Etze. I hear launch has packed goggles in his kit bag.
Posted 08:13 23rd November 2012
JamieTheProp says...
While I love watching The All Blacks play running rugby, as a front row forward I am looking forward to this game. Two quality packs going hell for leather against each other is what I love about the game.
I still think that Care should be starting as he marshals the forwards more effectively and seems to me to be more positive around the pitch. And I have yet to be convinced of Youngs at hooker (under pressure against a powder puff Australian scrum he continually lost his bind). But other than that this looks like a decent (notice I don't say good) England team.
The front row is excellent and improved by Corbs returning, the rest of the pack is decent and the backs, well we shall see!
I for one won't mind watching England grind a win - but I doubt that! South Africa are better at grinding than we are!
Posted 07:30 23rd November 2012
PREEST says...
This will more than likely be the most boring of the matches this weekend. In saying that, England have a lot to plat for after letting the game slip against Australia last week.
Posted 06:50 23rd November 2012