England wise to South Africa’s ‘curveballs’ before Rugby World Cup semi-final

PARIS – England are aware of South Africa’s potential tactical surprises before Saturday’s Rugby World Cup semi-final in Paris, said their defence coach Kevin Sinfield on Tuesday.

During Sunday’s quarter-final win over France, Springboks coach Jacques Nienaber and director of rugby Rassie Erasmus made a few maverick decisions.

They started with an inexperienced half-back partnership before bringing on 2019 World Cup-winning playmakers Faf de Klerk and Handre Pollard after just 45 minutes.

South Africa also chose to take a scrum from a free kick in their own 22, as they continued to be innovative in knocking out hosts and favourites France with a 29-28 win.

“(It’s) not just the curveballs, I just think how good they are,” said Sinfield, adding that they were “in awe” of the Springboks’ physicality, which England must overcome if they are to reach the Oct 28 final against either New Zealand or Argentina.

“We understand this team are very, very smart, they are coached particularly well and they are right across the laws, they understand all the intricacies and we’ve got to be ready for whatever comes on Saturday evening.”

Before taking up his role with England, Sinfield spent a season under England coach Steve Borthwick at English Premiership club Leicester Tigers.

They helped the Tigers to the 2022 league title and Sinfield worked with three members of South Africa’s squad – No. 8 Jasper Wiese, forward Marco van Staden and fly-half Pollard – at Welford Road.

“They’re good guys, good men and great players,” Sinfield said. “I didn’t work with Handre for that long, but Jasper and Marco van Staden, I loved working with both of them. We understand the strength in depth they’ve got.”

While Erasmus said England posed a massive “pothole or roadblock” in their hopes of retaining the title, he could not resist reminding them of their recent results.

“They will be definitely hurting not only from last year when we beat them but also the 2019 World Cup final,” added Erasmus, who said South Africa’s own selection process would again be delayed until Thursday, as they pondered several options and waited for England’s line-up for the clash at the Stade de France.

“It won’t be a 7-1 split on the bench,” he added of the Springboks’ decision in two recent Tests to put seven forwards and only one back among the replacements. “With two fit fly-halves now, we are probably looking at a 6-2 split.”

While Nienaber and Erasmus came into the Boks set-up in 2018, Sinfield and Borthwick have been in their positions for only a matter of months.

Despite being the only unbeaten side left in the tournament, England, champions in 2003 and runners-up to South Africa at the last World Cup, struggled at times during last Sunday’s 30-24 quarter-final win over Fiji.

But Sinfield said: “I’m not too bothered. It doesn’t matter to me. Our focus is trying to support, help and influence our players to be the best they can be at the weekend. We know we need to improve again for the weekend to try and get the job done.”

A positive for England during the World Cup has been the performance of No. 8 Ben Earl, who has kept Billy Vunipola out of the starting line-up, and Alex Dombrandt and Zach Mercer out of the squad entirely.

“He has been one of the standout players across the tournament,” Sinfield said. “If you named a World XV at this time, he would be close to getting in it.

“The minutes he has played for us, the ground he has covered, he has done a great job for us.”

One selection headache facing England on Saturday is whether to pick the creative Marcus Smith as a counter-attacking threat, or the reliable Freddie Steward to deal with the Boks’ kicking game. Smith was preferred to Steward for the victory over Fiji. AFP, REUTERS