Springboks boss Erasmus expects England to 'play for Borthwick' / Photo: PHILL MAGAKOE - AFP/File
Springboks boss Erasmus expects England to 'play for Borthwick'
South Africa supremo Rassie Erasmus expects the world champions to face an England team determined to ease the pressure on beleaguered coach Steve Borthwick at Twickenham on Saturday.
England are on a run of four straight defeats, having suffered narrow losses in their opening November internationals at home to New Zealand and Australia.
Back-to-back world champions South Africa have made 12 changes to their starting side following last week's 32-15 win over Scotland at Murrayfield.
That is partly because Erasmus believes England will revert to the kind of game that nearly brought them success in a 16-15 World Cup semi-final loss to the Springboks last year.
"When you lose two games, even if it's by a point or last-minute try, the pressure does start to build," Erasmus said after naming his team on Thursday.
"I've been there and I certainly know how quickly that can get to you and then one normally falls back onto what works for you."
Borthwick has a modest 50% success rate since succeeding Eddie Jones as England coach ahead of last year's World Cup and Erasmus highlighted the importance of support from senior officials.
"It depends on the men in the room, the management, depends on your CEO (chief executive officer). They can make you feel like you have got a gun against your head," he explained.
"You can try and create the environment and say 'We almost got the All Blacks, Australia last-minute try, if we didn't sleep there it could have been two wins'.
"If you put pressure on coaches it is not nice and you tend to make emotional decisions. I think Steve is too smart to do that. Sometimes you try to please them a bit but I don't think he is that kind of man."
He joked: "Hopefully he will get the win next weekend (against Japan at Twickenham in England's concluding November international)."
The South African coach said he had experienced low points in his own career.
"When we are under pressure we tend to get tight in a 'laager' (circle the wagons) mentality.... I don't know (England's) way of looking at tough times like this, but we are expecting a team that will be really tight and play for the coaching staff."
England will have no contact this week with defence guru Felix Jones even though the former South Africa assistant coach is still on their payroll as he works his notice period from home in Dublin on what the Rugby Football Union says is a remote "analysis" basis.
Jones quit his England job just months after joining Borthwick's staff, having helped the Springboks win both the 2019 and 2023 World Cups.
"I don't think it would have been a personality clash," said Erasmus. "You can't point fingers and say 'He meant a lot there, why not here?'. Sometimes what is needed in one team is not exactly what is needed in another."
N.Bell--MC-UK
