Former England captain Chris Robshaw believes that Steve Borthwick’s side would have taken valuable learnings from the 2023 Rugby World Cup semi-final defeat, as they prepare for the Springboks this Saturday. England host South Africa in the third round of the Autumn Nations Series this weekend, and Robshaw reviewed the last meeting between the two sides ahead of the upcoming clash at the Allianz Stadium.
Robshaw admired how South Africa were able to grind out the narrow wins of the latest World Cup, which saw the Springboks retain their title as world champions. South Africa were able to claw their way past France, England and the All Blacks with one-point victories, with Robshaw convinced that Borthwick’s side had the semi-final victory secured in the closing stages of the match.
“You have to solve them on their game and try and knock them back, and if you can’t do that, we’re not going to win. So in the World Cup semi final, we took that threat away, and all of a sudden, they (South Africa) looked a bit lost. I was there, and I probably jinxed them, with 70 minutes gone, I thought we’d done it. With all the people, I was like, I can’t see them (South Africa) winning this, I couldn’t see it.
“Fair play to (Handre) Pollard. I don’t know where Pollard is in a pecking order at the moment, but he’ll come back. Look fair play, that kick, I’ve never seen someone strike a ball so well. The conditions were horrendous. It was turf under a scrum which was a bit upset, and he nailed it, he never looked like missing.”
Whilst South Africa made a brief habit of closing out the wins by the skin of their teeth, England have succumb to two Autumn Series defeats in the final plays of the match. George Ford had the chance to snatch the win against the All Blacks, yet the fly half sent his penalty and subsequent drop goal off target.
The second narrow defeat saw the Wallabies pull out all the stops for their last-ditch attacking drive, as Max Jorgensen went over to score the winning try in the corner, in what was a devastating gut-punch for England fans to endure this past weekend.
“I think most people would agree with England, we’re so close.” Robshaw continued. “There’s one thing being close, and it’s one thing getting over the line. We saw South Africa in that world cup to win their last three knockout games, the most pressured games, by a point. They find a way to win, and unfortunately, that sometimes takes time.”
“You just thought that if we got to that (Rugby World Cup) final against New Zealand, I feel like we could have pipped them. I think for England as well, we need to get them open.”
“Because with South Africa, they only really start playing when they get on that front foot. I think the game plan in that World Cup was brilliant.”
Turning his attention to an area of the England team that Robshaw knew very well, the 66-capped international surveyed Borthwick’s current options in the forward pack. The former Harlequin continues to be impressed by the meteoric England rise of Chandler Cunningham-South, with the back row exploding out with big hits against the All Blacks, before adding two early tries against the Australians last weekend.
Robshaw also cast his view upon the likes of George Martin and Maro Itoje, with the Leicester lock picked out as a player that would not look too out of place in the green and gold of the Springboks.
“I like George Martin. I think he’s brilliant. I think if he was in the South African side, he wouldn’t look out of place. Maro is playing brilliantly, Cunningham-South himself again as well, he’s really grown up quickly.
“You forget he’s 21 years old, which is amazing. I mean, he’s brilliant. And I think he’s going to be there for a while. I think you’ve got Ben Earl and (Tom) Curry as well, who seem like they’ve been around forever, and they’re only late 20s.”
Robshaw recognised how there is no downplaying the threat of the South African forwards, with Rassie Erasmus set to detonate his bomb squad in the second half. The worst kept secret in Test match rugby is expected to return to Twickenham this Saturday, and Robshaw expressed the difficult mental obstacle you have to overcome as a player, when the Springboks unleashed their heavy reinforcements off the bench.
“Going against South Africa, first and foremost, you’ve got to match physicality. I think if you can take away the physicality, then you have a chance. As we saw in that semi final, if you can match that and better that, you’re over halfway there. If you can’t do that, it’s more to come.”
“You look at Rassie, for instance, I’ve never met the guy, but you look at a bomb squad seven, one (defensive split between forwards and backs). That had never been done in rugby before. All of a sudden, that got everyone talking. That got everyone chatting. And I tell you what, psychologically as a forward, if you’re playing against a big, heavy pack, and after 20 minutes of the second half, they’ve been on four big guys, you’re thinking, ‘we’re in for a rough ride here’.
“All of a sudden, they bring on six big guys or seven, then you’re really in trouble. And that’s very much a psychological thing they start to play. But like you said. The backline, that play a lot more now, they don’t rely on pure brute force.”
“When we played them, it was kick, scrum, maul and they run over the top of you. If that doesn’t work then, they’ll run over the top of you again and just keep doing that. Whereas now they have a lot more bows in their armour. And again, that’s through him (Rassie Erasmus) changing coaches, and he’s definitely one of those coaches we loved to hate.”
There’s no denying that Rassie Erasmus is amongst the most captivating and polarising coaches within Test match rugby. Robshaw can pull similarities from Erasmus to that of his former England head coach Eddie Jones, and described them as addicted to finding ways to win. With Jones recently at the forefront of Danny Care’s autobiography regarding the atmosphere in the England camp, Robshaw opened up about his relationship with the Aussie, who now heads up the Japan national team.
“I haven’t (read the book), he (Danny Care) hasn’t sent me one yet. So it’s probably for the better. He’s, had a couple of comments, Eddie, and I think it’s all an individual thing, isn’t it with Eddie, you know what he was like. He worked you hard.
“But from a personal point of view, Eddie was fine for me, but you never know what happened behind closed doors. So we’ll see. I look forward to seeing him in a couple of weeks, so hopefully he’ll (Care) bring me a book to read. I hear it’s selling well, which he’ll be pleased about.”
“I think that rivalry between South Africa and England, is brilliant. But for me, I know we touched on Eddie (Jones) briefly, but Rassie (Erasmus) and (Michael) Cheika and Fozzy (Ian Foster) and all those kind of characters, those international coaches, are addict for finding a way for wins, manipulating stuff.”
Robshaw went on to discuss how there is a definite South African mindset, with the determination for success of the Springboks dripping down to the feed the enthusiasm of their fans that wear the green and gold.
“I think people always knew the South African mindset and their intensity. I think you guys (the media) will know more than anyone else, you meet a South African fan at the moment, they will let you know there are South Africa fan. They will tell you about (Antoine) Dupont, and is he the best player in the world? And what he has to do to try and get that.”
Looking ahead beyond the Autumn Tests, and Robshaw expressed how England need to roll any momentum onwards for the 2025 Six Nations. Whilst Ireland lead the pack as the Six Nations frontrunners in recent championships, there is no out-right favourite heading into next February, with Robshaw backing England to take a few scalps of their Home Nation rivals.
“Then you go into a Six Nations, where we play Scotland, which we have struggled with. Ireland away, we play France. Do you know what I mean? It’s not like there, I say back in the day, where there was one good team. Here it’s now, at the moment Wales are really struggling, but it’s so competitive. It’s brilliant for the mutuals. As an English player, you want to knock a couple of them off for sure.”
Chris Robshaw was speaking to Ruck at the Premier Sports season launch, of the 2024/25 Investec Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup. Chris Robshaw is part of the Premier Sports TV team broadcasting every game live in the new season of Investec Champions Cup (www.premiersports.com) which kicks off on 6 December 2024.
Premier Sports Launch 6/11/2024
Chris Robshaw Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Morgan Treacy
Chris joins a strong line-up of TV pundits for the new season of Champions and Challenge Cup action on Premier Sports including Simon Zebo, Lawrence Dallaglio, Natasha ‘Mo’ Hunt, Stephen Ferris, Topsy Ojo, Andrew Trimble, Rob Kearney, Andy Goode, Ian Madigan, John Barclay, Matt Banahan, Tom Shanklin, Chris Paterson, Ryan Wilson and Shane Williams.
The post “Then you have a chance” – Chris Robshaw: former England captain believes that matching Springboks physicality is the secret to success appeared first on Ruck.
