Quick turnaround no problem for Boks as they prepare for England

Team management are fully focused on ensuring that the players are fresh physically and mentally when the sides cross paths for the first time since the 2023 Rugby World Cup semi-final.

The Boks travelled from Edinburgh to London on Monday and started Tuesday off with a gym session and an afternoon field training session to kick-start their preparations for Saturday's Test.

Springbok assistant coach Tony Brown, scrumhalf Cobus Reinach, and team doctor Jerome Mampane fronted the media on Tuesday and were all aligned in the team's approach to the week to ensure that they deliver their best performance possible on Saturday.

Rassie Erasmus will only announce his match-day squad for the match on Thursday but asked if the team selection was planned in advance with a short training week and several star players sitting out of the team's 32-15 victory against Scotland, Brown said the Bok coach "always has an overall plan in mind".

"It's always tough with a short turnaround because you lose a training day, so the players need to adapt," said Brown.

"That said, we are doing our best to ensure that they are fresh physically and mentally for the match."

Talking about what the short week requires from a medical perspective, Mampane said: "We have changed our programme this week, but there are still targets the coaches want to achieve, and everyone has planned things in such a way to ensure that the players are as fresh as possible in each contest."

Reinach was pleased to be in London and was excited about the challenge ahead for the squad: "Obviously this is a compressed week for us, but the players are looking good, and meetings have been going well, so we'll certainly prepare well for the Test this weekend."

The Bok scrumhalf echoed Erasmus' sentiments after that they are preparing to face a desperate England team after their defeats against Australia and New Zealand in the last two weeks and spoke highly of the rivalry between the nations going into the clash.

"Every Test match is a special game and has its own rivalry, although our last match against England was close in the World Cup semi-final, and then of course we faced them in the 2019 RWC final, so there is history between the teams," said Reinach.

"We definitely expect to face a team wanting to win this weekend, especially after suffering defeats in their last two games, so the important thing for us will be to stick to our structures and focus on what we want to do on the field."

Brown, meanwhile, reiterated his excitement to be a member of the Springbok coaching staff and said he was satisfied with the way the team's attack has been evolving, although there was work ahead to achieve their goal of becoming the best attacking team in the world.

"It's a massive honour (to coach the Springboks) and there's fantastic talent in this team, so it is encouraging for me to find ways to see how we can improve our game and try to create a better attacking style of play, which will hopefully put us in a position to become one of the best attacking teams in the world in future," said the former All Black flyhalf.

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