South Africa meet England in the semi-finals of the Rugby World Cup. The Springboks defeated England in the final of the last World Cup in Japan. The South Africans are favourites, but coach Jacques Nienaber is playing it safe.
South Africa have dashed the French team's hopes of securing a place in the Rugby World Cup semi-finals. Standing in the Springboks' way are England. A nation the South Africans know well. South Africa earned their third star of 2019 by crushing England (32-12). The reigning world champions will therefore have a psychological advantage over the English. But watch out! England intend to make amends for this affront and the Springbok staff are well aware of this.
"The reality is that we're facing England, a good English team, and we're not looking back. I don't know where we were ranked in 2019, but any team can beat any team at this stage of the competition. If we lose this game, we'll be eliminated, so everything is focused on this match," declared coach Jacques Nianaber.
In fact, the coach will be fielding the same starting XV against France. Eight of the starting line-up played against England in the World Cup final in Japan four years ago. This Saturday, October 21, South Africa will be playing at their best to get the better of this English team, says Nienaber."We've built a quality Rugby World Cup team over the last few years so we can be in this position before the knockout matches. Like us, they're one game away from a World Cup final and we've seen through the history of the tournament that England raise their game for these matches."
Captain Siya Kolisi, meanwhile, expects to face a completely different England team than in 2019. "They've improved from before the tournament, and you can see the intent, the aggression and the work rate and it's completely different. That's why they're the only unbeaten team in the competition". See you this Saturday at 7pm GMT.
The #Springboks have named an unchanged team to face England in their #RWC2023 semi-final on Saturday - more here: https://t.co/27VtYN1x6O 🏉#StrongerTogether pic.twitter.com/5GtR0RboNi
— Springboks (@Springboks) October 19, 2023
