South Africa believe England were the architects of their own spectacular demise in the first Test on Saturday because Eddie Jones’s squad failed to acclimatise properly. Instead of preparing at altitude before the Johannesburg contest Jones had chosen to base his players at sea level and saw his initially dominant team collapse to a 42-39 defeat.
Despite the second Test in Bloemfontein on Saturday also taking place on the Highveld, England will again train this week beside the Indian Ocean in Durban and the Springbok scrum-half Faf de Klerk, the man of the match, says he and his team-mates always felt England would struggle at Ellis Park.
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“We knew they were based in Durban and coming from the UK the altitude was going to be a factor,” said De Klerk, who plays in the Premiership for Sale. “That was our plan from the start but we didn’t have the ball in the first 20 minutes. We’ve been down by a lot of points before and for some reason we always seem to come back. I think the altitude plays a part, as do the fans and the fact it is Ellis Park. England made a few errors they don’t usually make and that played into our hands.”
The majority of visiting teams either base themselves at altitude for at least a week before a big game or arrive within 24 hours of kick-off. England, in contrast, flew up on Thursday and were unable to sustain an impressive start which gave them a 24-3 lead after 20 minutes. Jamie George conceded the unfamiliarity of playing at altitude had been a factor. “It was tough after 20 minutes,” the hooker said. “It really did kick in … after 20-30 minutes it definitely hit us quite hard. We probably need to get better at that; we’ll look to learn our lessons.”
Jones, though, insists there was nothing wrong with England’s pre‑match preparations, instead blaming poor discipline and too many errors. “All the science shows you have to be here for at least 10 days to get acclimatisation value. The South African teams who play on the coast don’t stay at altitude. We don’t think the benefits of staying at altitude are massive enough.
“We didn’t lose the game because of altitude. We lost the game because of our individual errors and discipline. We’ve got players coming off the back of the club season so to some degree we’ve been restricted in training. The way we started the game and thereafter, you wouldn’t have thought altitude was the problem. All the previous teams I have brought here usually get blown away in the first 20 minutes. We did the exact opposite.
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“It was a momentum game based on possession. They were always going to come back into the game so I wasn’t thinking ‘This is fantastic’ after 20 minutes. I was thinking: ‘We have to keep the hammer down here.’”
Despite England having now lost their past four Tests, Jones still insists his side can win the series. “There is no reason we can’t turn it round, no reason at all. Saturday’s was a game we should have won and we lost it, which is always difficult to swallow, but we will pick ourselves up and get ready for Bloem. This series was always going to be difficult.”
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England’s captain, Owen Farrell, also feels the Springboks can be denied a series victory. “We can’t sulk, we can’t feel sorry for ourselves. The main thing for us is belief. Not just saying we believe, not just chatting about it but having a proper deep belief that we can go and win this Test series. From speaking to the boys and seeing how we’ve held our heads up after this game I don’t think that will be an issue.”