By the time Eddie Jones’s England squad complete their three-Test trek around South Africa this month, several big questions will have been answered. Are they still a flourishing side who simply endured a blip during the Six Nations? Are Jones’s players still energised by their master’s voice? The first Test at Ellis Park this weekend feels a significant moment of truth.
Nowhere will that sense be stronger than inside the red rose dressing room where a desire to prove the doubters wrong has emerged as one of the team’s primary motivations. “Everyone’s bagging us, everyone’s saying we can’t win,” Jones said. “From ex‑players to ex-coaches [they are saying] we’re no good so it’s a great opportunity to show we are of value.” Not so long ago England were a team who could not stop winning; now Jones is employing the same backs-to-the-wall rhetoric favoured by relegation-threatened football managers.
Siya Kolisi: ‘We represent something much bigger than we can imagine’
Even a drawn series or a narrow 2-1 defeat would represent a clear improvement on recent events, albeit with an asterisk attached: win or lose, England urgently need to distance themselves from the weary mob who trailed in second-bottom of the Six Nations table. Even Jones has finally acknowledged his side were a shadow of their old selves, particularly in their last two away games in Scotland and France. “When I look back we got tired for a number of reasons. I think we got tactically, physically and mentally tired and that was shown in our results. We’ve all had a break, had a look at where we want to go tactically and how we want to prepare as a team.”
All of which makes this first encounter with the Springboks unusually hard to second guess. England are not alone in trying to rediscover the best of themselves; the host nation have been enduring an even leaner spell and their new coach Rassie Erasmus has picked a team which, in several areas, has an untested feel. Siya Kolisi, their impressive new leader, is the first black Test captain in their history but a symbolic success in the same stadium where Nelson Mandela presented his predecessor Francois Pienaar with the Webb Ellis Cup in 1995 is not guaranteed.
Listening to the composed Kolisi and a quietly determined Owen Farrell in the build-up has merely increased the sense of the fresh guard being taken by both these sides. Of the two new captains, Farrell has a bit more experience at his disposal and sounds marginally the more bullish: “We learned a lot about ourselves in the Six Nations … we were probably not as bad as everyone made out at the time. The challenge now is to get excited about this weekend and to be able to take a knock and still come through it. It’s not just about sticking in the game but for it to bring out the best in you. That’s something we’ll try and make sure happens.”
The first priority will be to try and keep Farrell and England’s other most influential players on the pitch for as long as possible. If anything befalls Maro Itoje or Nick Isiekwe early on, the second-row back-up is being supplied by the debutant Brad Shields who has played the vast majority of his Super Rugby career in the back row. If Tom Curry also departs prematurely and Billy Vunipola’s hamstring starts grumbling again, it could turn into a very long afternoon at a venue where South Africa have not lost to any side from the home nations, aside from the 2009 Lions in a dead rubber, since 1972.
Assuming they can hold their own at the breakdown, however, England will hope to examine two possible areas of Springbok vulnerability. The home side’s back three are potentially lethal with ball in hand but not necessarily so reliable under the high ball, making an aerial bombardment from the visitors a strong possibility. The absence of the injured Eben Etzebeth and, crucially, their marauding new hooker Malcolm Marx, also makes the lineout a crucial area. South Africa have plenty of good jumpers but none with a massive amount of Test experience.
While no Springbok side ever lacks entirely for physicality, it may be England who set out to slow the game down to their pace, unleash their big men around the fringes and play for territory. Jones never won at Ellis Park with Australia but he knows a fair amount about preparing teams to play up on the high veld. “The game stats show the game is a little bit different at altitude. Less ball in play, shorter periods of play, the ball travels further and people run faster. We have spoken about that. The general feedback from the players is that you get that ‘hit’ in the first 10 minutes and it feels like you are never going to recover. Then you do recover and it is all about your ability to absorb that psychologically. If you have got a good side you win there, if you haven’t got a good side, you don’t win there.”
If the Vunipola brothers, Itoje, George and Farrell maintain the kind of form that swept Saracens to the Premiership title at Twickenham two weeks ago, a relieving victory is entirely possible. Elliot Daly has barely put a foot wrong in the past 12 months and should relish the extra freedom of wearing 15; at outside-centre Henry Slade is too talented a footballer not to nail down a regular place at some stage. At various points over the next fortnight, Jones is also hoping other strong 2019 candidates will emerge: “Some players will rise during the tour and some will fall, that’s the way it always is. You don’t get many harder tours than this in world rugby. New Zealand and South Africa are the ultimate tests of tough rugby.”
Which is precisely why this trip promises to be the most revealing since the all-conquering Clive Woodward era. “It’s a new side, a new team, a new captain and we want to play the game in a new way,” Jones said. “It’s an opportunity for us to take a step forward and start the march to the World Cup. Ultimately, to win it, you’ve got to win these big games.” Fail to relocate their old winning habit and England stand little chance of being big in Japan.