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Springboks out to extend Twickenham lead

Writer's picture: World RugbyWorld Rugby

ENGLAND v SOUTH AFRICA – ALLIANZ STADIUM, TWICKENHAM – KO 5.40pm (local time)


Referee

Andrew Brace (Ireland)

Test debut: 10 June 2017 – Canada 0-13 Georgia

Tests as referee: 33

  • Andrew Brace will take charge of this fixture for the second time, having been in the middle for England’s 27-26 victory at this stadium in November 2021.

  • It will be the 11th time he referees England in a Test match with the most recent being a 30-21 loss to Scotland in the Guinness Men’s Six Nations in February.

  • England have a W7, L3 record with Brace in the middle with their last victory the narrow 18-17 win at Rugby World Cup 2023.

  • Three of England’s last five matches in which Brace has refereed have been settled by a single point with 27-26 v South Africa and 29-30 v Argentina in 2022 in addition to the Samoa victory.

  • He has also refereed England in a non-cap match against the Barbarians in May 2017.

  • The loss to England is South Africa’s only defeat with the Irish official in charge, their fourth win coming in August, 31-27 over New Zealand in The Rugby Championship.

  • This will be Brace’s fourth Test of the year, having also been in the middle for Argentina’s 33-25 defeat of France in July.

  • Brace will also be an assistant referee for Scotland v Australia on 24 November.

  • Born in Wales, Brace is a former Belgium international.


Head-to-head

Played: 46 – South Africa leads 28-16 with two draws

Points for: England 784/South Africa 988 (Avg. score: 17-21)

Highest score: England 53 (53-3 on 23 November, 2002) / South Africa 58 (58-10 on 26 May, 2007)

Biggest winning margin: England 50 (53-3 on 23 November, 2002) / South Africa 48 (58-10 on 26 May, 2007)

First met: 8 December, 1906 – England 3-3 South Africa – Crystal Palace, London

Last met: 21 October, 2023 – RWC 2023 – South Africa 16-15 England – Stade de France, Saint-Denis, France


Head-to-head notes

  • South Africa were 27-13 victors on their last visit to Twickenham in November 2022, despite having prop Thomas du Toit red-carded.

  • Kurt-Lee Arendse and Eben Etzebeth scored the Springboks’ tries, while Faf de Klerk kicked three penalties and a conversion and Damian Willemse two drop goals.

  • Owen Farrell kicked two penalties for England, for whom Tom Curry was sin-binned, before converting Henry Slade’s late try.

  • Since then, South Africa have beaten England 16-15 in the semi-final of Rugby World Cup 2023 at the Stade de France.

  • RG Snyman scored the only try of the match for the Springboks, who also had eight points from the boot of Handré Polland and three from Manie Libbok to thank for helping them to victory.

  • Farrell kicked four penalties and a drop goal for England.

  • England’s last victory came at this venue in November 2021, an 80th-minute penalty by Marcus Smith securing a 27-26 victory.

  • This will be the 24th time the sides meet in Twickenham, dating back to the first – a 9-3 victory for South Africa – in January 1913.

  • The Springboks just edge it with 12 wins to England’s 11 with half of those victories having come in the last 10 matches at this venue.


Team notes

  • England’s capacity to lose tight games continued at Allianz Stadium last weekend with a 42-37 defeat to Australia.

  • Chandler Cunningham-South bagged a brace of early tries as England surged into a 15-3 lead.

  • Ollie Sleightholme also crossed twice in the second half before Maro Itoje added another but England were beaten by Max Jorgensen’s last-second score.

  • England only had a 48% share of possession and were forced into making 195 tackles, with a success rate of 84%.

  • England conceded five tries (from 10 Australian visits into their 22) for the first time since losing to Ireland in a Rugby World Cup 2023 warm-up match in Dublin in August 2023.

  • It was the most points England have scored in a home defeat and the most points they have conceded against Australia in Twickenham.

  • Eight of England’s 10 matches this year have been settled by seven points or less, although they have only come out on top in three of them.

  • Thirteen of the last 14 England games have been settled by a single-digit margin.

  • The 24-22 defeat to New Zealand in their opening Autumn Nations Series fixture on 2 November means that England have now lost six of their 10 matches this year, including each of their past four.

  • It is their worst run of results since 2018.

  • Immanuel Feyi-Waboso scored for the third game in a row against New Zealand, while Smith kicked all six of his attempts at goal with five penalties and a conversion.

  • England’s set-piece operated at 100%, winning all nine of their own scrums and 12/12 line-outs.

  • England had two more entries into the opposition 22 (eight to six) but were outscored three tries to one.

  • England have won four of the 10 Tests they have played so far in 2024, scoring 261 points and conceding 246 in reply.

  • After conceding three yellow cards in their first two Tests of 2024, England have only received one in the eight games since (Smith v Japan, the same game in which Charlie Ewels was sent off).

  • England finished third in the Guinness Men’s Six Nations 2024 with the margin of their three victories decreasing from three points against Italy (27-24) to two against Wales (16-14) and one against Ireland (23-22).

  • They were beaten in two of their three away games – 30-21 by Scotland and then 33-31 by France in the final round.

  • England did not lead at half-time in any of their Men’s Six Nations games. The 1974 Five Nations was the last Championship where England trailed at the break in every fixture.

  • England left a lot of points out on the field in the Men’s Six Nations; their 69% success rate (19/26) in front of goal was the worst in the competition.

  • Itoje hasn’t missed a single minute of test rugby for England this year, having clocked up 800 minutes from the 10 matches to date.

  • South Africa beat Scotland 32-15 in their opening match of the Autumn Nations Series at Murrayfield last Sunday.

  • It is the second consecutive match where the Springboks have prevented Scotland from scoring a try, having won 18-3 when the sides met in Pool B at Rugby World Cup 2023.

  • Makazole Mapimpi scored a first-half double to make it four tries in two matches against Scotland, while Du Toit and Jasper Wiese scored their first test Tries.

  • On an eventful day for the winger, Mapimpi received South Africa’s 12th yellow card of the year.

  • The two-time Rugby World Cup winner has now crossed for 32 tries in 46 tests, drawing level with Jaque Fourie in third place on the Springboks’ all-time try-scoring list.

  • The Scotland win is the first step in South Africa’s bid for a clean sweep of November victories for the first time since 2013.

  • South Africa clinched their second Rugby Championship title – and their first since 2019 – when they beat Argentina 48-7 in Nelspruit in September.

  • The Springboks picked up 24 competition points – eight more than runners-up New Zealand – from their five wins and one defeat.

  • The 29-28 defeat to Los Pumas in round five is just one of two defeats in 2024, the other being the 25-24 loss to Ireland in the second Test of the July series.

  • The defeat to Argentina ended their record-equalling winning run of five matches in The Rugby Championship and also saw them lose their No 1 ranking to Ireland.

  • In the first four rounds, South Africa recorded bonus-point wins away to Australia, 33-7 in Brisbane and 30-12 in Perth, before beating New Zealand 31-27 in Johannesburg and 18-12 in Cape Town.

  • In the opening round win in Brisbane, South Africa conceded three yellow cards in a match for the first time in Test rugby.

  • Aphelele Fassi was sin-binned in round three against New Zealand and Wiese and Willie le Roux saw yellow in round four, while Arendse spent time in the sin-bin in round five, taking the Springboks’ overall tally of yellow cards to seven, the joint highest in the competition, along with New Zealand.

  • South Africa won 15 scrum penalties, which is only four fewer than the rest of the teams between them.

  • South Africa have only conceded one scrum penalty all competition – the next best is seven (New Zealand).

  • South have had 99 throws in at the line-out – 10 more than the next highest team (New Zealand), with a success rate of 87% ranking them joint second.

  • The Springboks had the worst goal-kicking success rate having slotted 28 of their 41 attempts (68%).

  • South Africa attempted the most drop goals (four out of five) but without any success.

  • The Springboks average the most kicks in play per match (28).


Team news

  • Steve Borthwick has made four personnel changes to his starting line-up following the loss to Australia last weekend with Sleightholme, Jack van Poortvliet, Freddie Steward and Sam Underhill all coming in.

  • The tight five is unchanged with Ellis Genge and Will Stuart either side of captain Jamie George and Itoje and George Martin packing down behind them.

  • Cunningham-South, the scorer of two-first half tries against Australia, continues on the blindside with Ben Earl at No 8 and Underhill replacing Curry on the openside.

  • Van Poortvliet will wear an England shirt for the first time since the 19-17 loss to Wales last August when an ankle injury ended his hopes of a being selected for a first Rugby World Cup.

  • He will line-up alongside Smith with Slade and Ollie Lawrence lining up outside them in midfield.

  • Tommy Freeman shifts to the right wing with Sleightholme, rewarded for his two-try haul off the bench last weekend, selected on the left and Steward at fullback.

  • Tom Roebuck comes onto the bench as backs cover for the first time since his Test debut against Japan in June.

  • Wilco Louw will play his first Test match for more than three years as one of 12 changes to the Springbok starting line-up from last weekend’s victory over Scotland.

  • The prop last wore the Springbok jersey in a behind-closed-doors match against Argentina in Port Elizabeth in The Rugby Championship in August 2021.

  • Only front-row duo, Ox Nche and Mbongeni Mbonambi and second-row Eben Etzebeth, who hands the captaincy back to Siya Kolisi, retain their starting positions in a 23-man squad which includes an entirely new backline and eight personnel changes in total.

  • The changes have upped the overall tally of Test caps in the starting line-up from 725 against Scotland to 767, with Kolisi contributing 90 of those caps.

  • Nche, Mbonambi and Louw will pack down in the front row, while Etzebeth is joined by Snyman, who came off the bench last week together with Kolisi, in the second row.

  • Etzebeth will extend his Springbok record as the most-capped player to 130 Tests when he takes the field.

  • Kolisi returns to the starting line-up after his first appearance off the bench since playing Namibia at Rugby World Cup 2019 and is joined in the back row by Pieter-Steph du Toit and Murrayfield try-scorer Wiese.

  • Grant Williams is promoted from the bench and has Libbok alongside him at half-back, while the tried and trusted record centre partnership of Damian de Allende and Jesse Kriel is renewed.

  • Arendse and Cheslin Kolbe are the new wings and Fassi takes the fullback spot.


Coach notes

  • Borthwick has won 13 of his 26 Tests as England head coach (50%) since succeeding Eddie Jones in time for the start of the 2023 Men’s Six Nations.

  • He is now in his 12th year of international coaching, having been forwards coach of Japan from 2012-15 before following Eddie Jones to England.

  • Borthwick led England to a third-place finish at Rugby World Cup 2023.

  • The former England captain and second-row played 57 Tests for his country.

  • Rassie Erasmus retuned to the Springboks head coach role in February 2024, signing a contract that takes him up the end of 2027.

  • Erasmus was the mastermind behind the Springboks’ back-to-back Rugby World Cup successes of 2019 and 2023 – as head coach and then director of rugby.

  • HIs reign in charge started with a defeat to Wales in Washington DC in June 2018.

  • Erasmus won 36 caps for South Africa as a back-row forward from 1997-2001.


England starting XV: 15 Freddie Steward, 14 Tommy Freeman, 13 Ollie Lawrence, 12 Henry Slade, 11 Ollie Sleightholme; 10 Marcus Smith, 9 Jack van Poortvliet; 8 Ben Earl, 7 Sam Underhill, 6 Chandler Cunningham-South; 5 George Martin, 4 Maro Itoje; 3 Will Stuart, 2 Jamie George (capt), 1 Ellis Genge. Replacements: 16 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17 Fin Baxter, 18 Dan Cole, 19 Nick Isiekwe, 20 Alex Dombrandt, 21 Harry Randall, 22 George Ford, 23 Tom Roebuck.


South Africa starting XV: 15 Aphelele Fassi, 14 Cheslin Klobe, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Kurt-Lee Arendse; 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Grant Williams; 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (capt); 5 RG Snyman, 4 Eben Etzebeth; 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Ox Nche. Replacements: 16 Malcolm Marx, 17 Gerhard Steenekamp, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 Elrigh Louw, 20 Kwagga Smith, 21 Cobus Reinach, 22 Handre Pollard, 23 Lukhanyo Am.


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