This Saturday England play South Africa in the second of three rugby tests in Bloemfontein
last weekend South Africa won 42-39 from 24-3 down in a game with ten tries
South Africa are an improved team in part because they have relaxed the selection criteria. Previously they wouldn't pick any player playing overseas unless they had more than 30 caps.As a lot of SA players were compelled financially to take overseas contracts (weakness of the rand, domestic franchises couldn't compete) this reduced their pool of talent considerably. policy now reversed so de klerk, le roux, brits, vermeulen etc all back in the fold
That game was in Jo'burg at altitude. For reasons which i have been unable to fathom apart from the fact the beaches are nice, England flew out to a three test tour and based themselves in Durban, at sea level
they played the first match after a long domestic season with no warm up game at altitude
so even though England started very well, they were run off their feet between minutes 20-60 with the scrumhalf Faf De Klerk running the game at 100mph for SA
It was only when England used their bench that they got their second wind in the last 20
In the circumstances to only lose by 3 was a good effort
They flew back to Durban afterwards even though Blomfontein is at altitude too this weekend
but at least this weekend they will have had one game at altitude
Through the six nations England had two big problems
Zero creativity in midfield, didn't create many chances, didn't score many tries
Problems at the breakdown, no real number 7. couldn't win turnovers, got turned over
with a year to the 2019 RWC Eddie is trying to sort these out
He has picked Henry Slade in the centre. A creative player. Daly at full back. Five tries in jo-burg is a decent start
He has gone for 19yo Tom Curry who at least is a 7. Work in progress, no convincing answer yet.
for this game Launchbury is back which given they were forced to (tactically) sub off a makeshift debutant lock after 35 minutes last week is a big upgrade
Robshaw is dropped (finally you might argue, good player but quite cumbersome for a back row in the modern game). Brad Shields is the current Hurricanes captain, newly English and a better player than Robshaw
So England are +4 and 6/4, went off +3 last week and it pushed
I think they could win this game
I think it should be close
We can get (well we can't) but the market has 11/4 Eng 1-12 winning margin with Lad/Corals
https://www.oddschecker.com/rugby-union/internationals/south-africa-v-england/winning-margin