England have been labelled a ‘desperate team’ by South Africa rugby coach Rassie Erasmus as he warned his players to expect a response from Steve Borthwick’s side struggling side.
England lost their second straight Autumn Nations Series match on Saturday after a last-gasp 42-37 defeat to Australia. Max Jorgenson’s last-gasp try handed victory to the Wallabies when they were trailing with just two minutes to go.
Borthwick’s men put themselves in the driving seat when Marcus Smith converted Maro Itoje’s try in the 78th minute. However, they were unable to cling onto their narrow advantage and their slender lead was wiped out by Australia late on.
They had also been beaten by a narrow margin when losing 24-22 to New Zealand and next face a monumental test against South Africa, who overcame Scotland 32-15 at Murrayfield on Sunday.
But Springboks coach Erasmus is under no illusions that England will prove to be stubborn opposition, especially in front of a huge crowd at their 82,000-seater Twickenham Stadium.
“Twickenham will be a different kind of pressure,” Erasmus said. “It’s a very desperate team, who have lost two matches now. Australia might not be up there rankings-wise, but we know where they’re going with [coach] Joe Schmidt.
“England is now that desperate team who almost beat New Zealand, almost beat Australia, so it’s going to be a very tough game.”
England’s latest defeat prompted pundits to criticise their performance after letting their lead slip in the last few minutes of the match. Matt Dawson, part of the 2003 World Cup-winning squad, accused Borthwick and his players of buckling under the pressure.
“I can’t lose sight of what an incredible try that was under pressure for Australia. England had it!” Dawson said.
“How many times have England had the game under their control and they go back to this dreaded box kick? It gets them in trouble every single time.
“For 65 minutes, England were fantastic. In the last 15 minutes, they were rubbish.”
It will be the first meeting between the two nations since South Africa secured a dramatic World Cup semi-final win in France last year.
Now ranked as the best team in the world, South Africa could pile more pressure on under-fire coach Borthwick after calls for him to be sacked grew exponentially.
However, the Rugby Football Union (RFU) believe England’s current blip is different to their woeful run under former boss Eddie Jones and, according to The Guardian, have pledged their “100% support” for Borthwick.
