sport news SHAUN EDWARDS gives his guide to beating the Springboks ahead of England's ... trends now
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With France’s autumn campaign wrapped up, I will be watching England’s game against South Africa on TV at home in Perpignan.
I’m backing England to win by one score, and after our tight win over South Africa in Marseille a fortnight ago there are a couple of areas I think they should focus on.
FIRST-PHASE ATTACK
It’s best to attack South Africa off first-phase strike moves, when all the forwards are still around the scrum or the lineout.
Freddie Steward is excellent when it comes to chasing down kicks and will be a key player
When the entire Springbok team get into defensive mode it is very difficult to make yardage up the middle because their players are so big and strong. You don’t make many yards when you are running straight into guys such as Eben Etzebeth. It’s so difficult to have success by launching runners straight off the scrum-half against the Boks. You need to catch them before they find that structure.
Another way to catch their defence unstructured is by launching box kicks or up-and-unders and attacking off the ‘second ball’. I stole that phrase from football, where they used to hoof it up to someone like Alan Shearer to get possession and then quickly attack off his knockdowns. Freddie Steward is the best in the world at chasing kicks and if he can provide quick ‘second ball’ behind enemy lines then they can cause problems.
WATCH OUT FOR WILLIE LE ROUX
The Springboks are playing differently to what you expect from a traditional South Africa team. Don’t be surprised to see them throwing the ball wide and looking for
