Springboks legends accuse ‘weird’ England of ‘copying’ South Africa
Tommaso Allan going over for Italy's second try against England in 2024 Six Nations.
Legendary Springboks Schalk Burger and Jean de Villiers have been left confused by the style that England are beginning to employ.
The Red Rose reached the semi-finals of the Rugby World Cup in 2023 but are looking to develop their game plan looking ahead to the 2027 tournament.
Steve Borthwick’s men were evidently more adventurous than they were in France during their Six Nations opener against Italy, while they also employed a rush defence under new coach Felix Jones.
The system debut
It had a mixed debut, with the Azzurri’s first-half tries coming directly from some disorganisation in their rearguard, but they generally rectified it for the second period.
Jones was previously part of the Springboks brains trust, firstly with the defence before moving on to help the attacking side of their game post-2019 World Cup.
The Irishman joined the Red Rose as the team’s defence coach recently and Burger accused England of basically “copying” Jacques Nienaber’s system.
“Last year they [England] played to their strengths. They had the best defence at the World Cup and best kicking game at the World Cup,” the legendary back-row told the Boks Office podcast.
“This year, we all see Felix Jones is going across there and I thought what a great job he did with our Springbok attack.
“We all have massive respect for Felix – his work ethic and how he coaches the attack. All of a sudden he pops up on screen as a defence coach and he is copying a Springbok style of defence.
“If you look at the highlights there was one horror clip with Tommaso Allan’s try. Five guys on the blind, three guys at the ruck and a second pass takes out 12 English defenders and they got a four-on-one with Elliot Daly. There’s a lot of work [to do] in that defensive system.”
De Villiers’ view
Fellow former Springbok De Villiers was equally befuddled by England’s decision to hire Jones as their defence guru.
Although the 36-year-old was initially brought in by the Boks as a defence consultant, he then went on to help Mzwandile Stick with the attack.
“England starts anew this year. They see what Felix has done with the Boks. You employ him, but you employ him for something totally different,” the ex-centre said.
“On what basis do you get a guy like that if he is going to fulfil a role that that you haven’t seen him do? Or is it based on what he has done at Munster? It’s a weird one.”
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