England legend claims Springboks ‘dominance’ is overrated

England and British & Irish Lions great Jeremy Guscott believes that the Springboks’ dominance of international rugby is overrated and that the 2019 vintage is better.

While 2025 marked the third consecutive year that South Africa finished on top of the World Rugby rankings and saw the Boks defend their Rugby Championship title and go unbeaten on the end-of-year tour, Guscott says that Rassie Erasmus’ men are ‘beatable’.

He admits that the Boks are the strongest team in the world right now, but doubts that South Africans would dominate a World XV, despite World Rugby’s Dream XV of 2025 featuring six Boks.

Not so dominant Boks

Guscott wrote as much in his The Rugby Paper column, where he weighed up England’s prospects at the 2027 Rugby World Cup.

Steve Borthwick’s men finished 2025 on an 11-Test winning streak, which did not include a victory over the Springboks, who they did not face off against this year.

The two nations will face off in the opening game of the Nations Championship next year, with the iconic Ellis Park confirmed as the venue for the showdown.

“Expect­a­tions of Eng­land have grown because of their recent 11-match win­ning record, and it’s become inev­it­able that any side that gets on a win­ning run is com­pared with the 2003 world cham­pi­ons,” Guscott wrote.

“That’s why it’s worth remem­ber­ing that in 2003 Eng­land went into the tour­na­ment as the world’s num­ber one team, hav­ing beaten all their main rivals. Eng­land 2003 also had six or seven play­ers who, without argu­ment, would get into a World XV – and Eng­land do not have that right now.

“Where Steve Borth­wick’s 2025 side is con­cerned, there would be a big debate whether any are con­tenders for a World XV, with per­haps the excep­tion of Maro Itoje.

“To get to the level of the 2003 team, Borth­wick’s side has to get to the top of the world’s six lead­ing nations over the next two years. That might be attain­able because, although South Africa are play­ing very well at the moment, I don’t think they would dom­in­ate a cur­rent World XV – and the only people likely to say they would are South African fans.”

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The former centre argues that the current Springboks team is not as dominant as the team that clinched the title in Japan back in 2019.

He also adds that the 2015 All Blacks were also more dominant than the current South African team.

“My sense is that South Africa in 2023 were not as dom­in­ant as world cham­pi­ons as they were in 2019, or as dom­in­ant as New Zea­l­and in 2015, or Eng­land in 2003,” he continued.

“This is because since 2019 the top teams have all beaten each other, and although the Spring­boks are the strongest side, they are beat­able, hav­ing sus­tained a num­ber of defeats.”

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England Grand Slam loading?

Guscott sees the 2026 Six Nations as a real opportunity for England to stamp their mark and build towards the World Cup. Borthwick’s men host Wales and Ireland at the Allianz Stadium next year, with a visit to Murrayfield in between.

He adds that if they are to win Grand Slam next year’s edition of the competition, fans would be thinking, “wait a minute, we’ve got the mak­ings here”.

He further detailed areas of England’s game that they need to improve.

“Borth­wick’s team are in good shape at the moment, but it’s tenu­ous, and can swing on one res­ult,” he added.

“The areas of improve­ment Eng­land must address are becom­ing bul­let-proof at the set-piece, whether scrums, lin­eouts, or restarts, and being able to use both your attack and defence as a weapon.

“You’ve got to be high-per­cent­age clin­ical in fin­ish­ing your chances, and the same in not giv­ing away pen­al­ties. It’s also essen­tial to up your con­cen­tra­tion and raise your game when you have to. That way you become the team that no-one wants to play.

“Another golden rule is that if there is a loss you have to bounce right back straight­away, because two losses means you’re back to square one.”

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