Springboks legend slams England selection as ‘non-event’ player singled out
England head coach Steve Borthwick and an inset of Schalk Burger
Springboks legend Schalk Burger has questioned Steve Borthwick’s selections for the clash at Ellis Park, taking aim at one player in particular.
Rassie Erasmus’ charges marched to an emphatic 45-21 victory over England in Johannesburg, despite losing Siya Kolisi and Eben Etzebeth before kick-off. England were also dealt a late blow with George Furbank withdrawing from the fixture with appendicitis. Marcus Smith subsequently filled in at full-back in his future Harlequins teammate’s absence.
Burger believes that that change from England significantly hampered their chances of getting a result against the Boks, but his main question centred around Borthwick’s midfield selections with Seb Atkinson partnering Tommy Freeman against South Africa.
Steve Borthwick got his selections wrong
The former flanker aired those views on The Verdict podcast where he was joined by fellow former Springboks Hanyani Shimange and Jean de Villiers, the latter who started the debate by posing the question of whether sooned to be qualified Benhard Janse van Rensburg would have made a difference in the centres.
“Their centres went missing,” ex-hooker Shimange remarked. “I’m not sure they selected the best team to take on the Springboks; look, they had lots of enthusiasm on attack – I thought. Defensively, in the air, they probably lack that same energy.”
“I wanted to ask Jean about the balance between Atkinson and Freeman,” Burger responded.
“Because Freeman’s a runner, but Atkinson was a non-event on the weekend. I loved Fin Smith’s approach against the rush because you can’t play through 10 – we’ve seen that with teams doing against us; our defence just eats up the metres.
“Him kicking early on, the set him actually being an attacking threat, was decent.”
A former centre, De Villiers struggled to pinpoint the value that Atkinson adds that players like Ollie Lawrence and Max Ojomoh don’t, two players who were overlooked by Borthwick and his staff for the Nations Championship.
“The thing with Seb Atkinson, and I haven’t seen a hell of a lot of him, but you need to ask the question: what’s his point of difference as a 12 in an England team?” the 109-Test cap former midfielder said.
“What’s he going to bring that’s really going to put the opposition under pressure? And what does he do so much better than any of the others that could have been selected? And I’m struggling to find that thing. You need gain-line.”
“Benhard Janse van Rensburg is out of the question; he is playing next week when he is eligible, but like, do they need something like a Tuilagi or Ojomoh?” Burger added with De Villiers remarking, “If you have that, yes.”
Shimange believes that the selections were made worse by Borthwick selecting two ‘small’ wingers in the form of Immanuel Feyi-Waboso and Cadan Murley. He feels that they would have been better off selecting a bigger winger to face the Springboks.
“If you’ve got a big blindside winger from lineouts and scrums, you can always use him as the guy to gain line, and then you can start operating from there. They picked two small wingers,” he said.
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Still, Burger felt that England’s biggest downfall was their failure to meet the Springboks in one crucial battle: the aerial battle.
“You can argue that the Springboks’ changes had less of an effect, being a lock and then two new flankers, than having George Furbank pull out five at 15 because you play the Boks and the first thing you’ve got to get right is physicality; second is the kicking game, and they lost the kicking battle convincingly on the weekend.”
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The Springboks’ attention now turns to Scotland at Loftus Versfeld. According to Burger, the Scots will pose a far greater challenge in the midfield through their captain Sione Tuipulotu.
“This weekend we’re playing Scotland, so we know we’ve got Tuipulotu coming at us; he’s going to put us under pressure.”
