Kickoff: 5:40pm TNT Sports
Team news
England
1.Genge 2.George(C) 3.Stuart 4.Itoje 5.Martin 6.Cunningham-South 7.Underhill 8.Earl
9.Van Poortvliet 10.M.Smith 11.Sleightholme 12.Slade 13.Lawrence 14.Fr eeman 15.Steward
16.Dan 17.Baxter 18.Cole 19.Isiekwe 20.Dombrandt 21.Randall 22.Ford 23.Roebuck
England have made 4 changes to the side that lost against Australia. Tom Curry and Emmanuel Feyi-Waboso both miss out due to injury whereas Ben Spencer and George Furbank have both been dropped from the starting XV to out of the match-day squad altogether. One player who is unlucky to miss out is Ben Curry who made a good impact from the bench against New Zealand but has not been given a chance since. He may feel particularly aggrieved due to the fact that Sam Underhill has barely played in the last couple of months but still gets the nod ahead of him. The additions of Underhill and Steward to the starting line-up as well as Tom Roebuck making the bench suggests a change in tactic for the home side. It looks likely that they will return to the game plan that saw them come painfully close to beating South Africa in the 2023 World Cup semi-final. Jack Van Poortvliet's box kicking is a key aspect of his game so England will likely rely on that. With the penalisation of escort runners in this series, the role of fullbacks means that Steward's aerial abilities are more coveted than ever. England should look to use the aerial dominance of Freeman and Steward as well as the box kicking of Van Poortvliet to target the smaller wingers of South Africa. In that semi-final, Engkand kicked 41 times from hand. They will probably look to repeat that on Saturday, crowd reaction be damned.
South Africa
1.Nche 2.Mbonambi 3.W.Louw 4.Etzebeth 5.Snyman 6.Kolisi(C) 7.Du Toit 8.Wiese
9.Williams 10.Libbok 11.Arendse 12.de Allende 13.Kriel 14.Kolbe 15.Fassi
16.Marx 17.Steenekamp 18.Koch 19.E.Louw 20.Smith 21.Reinach 22.Pollard 23.Am
The Springboks revert back to a more conventional 5-3 split on the bench rather than the 7-1 they deployed against Scotland. Siya Kolisi returns to captain the team and Manie Libbok starts at fly-half with Pollard on the bench. It will be interesting to see how Libbok fares against England given that in their last meeting he was targeted and substituted before half time. Libbok versus Smith presents an epic battle of electric fly-halves against each other but for 2 teams who may not be very expansive. South Africa will look to establish their usual dominance at the scrum so England will need to step up massively from their previous performances. Ellis Genge will have a point to prove and his deputy, Fin Baxter will face the toughest test of his international career to date when he has to face off against the "bomb squad".
My Prediction:
England 20 vs 27 South Africa
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