Wily Erasmus predicts England's tactics again as Boks' split-squad plan pays off

While the wily Springbok coach stopped short of predicting Steve Borthwick's entire England side for Saturday's massive clash at Twickenham, as he did ahead of last year's World Cup semi-final, he did predict that Freddie Steward, who wore the No. 15 jersey in that match, would return to Borthwick's side at fullback. A few hours later, the England coach proved him right.

Erasmus' other prediction in line with that selection was that Borthwick, under pressure following a series of narrow losses, would revert to type and try to squeeze the Springboks with a kicking gameplan, and while we've yet to see if that prediction will come to pass, you wouldn't bet against Erasmus having gotten this one right as well.

The Springbok coach knows Borthwick is feeling under the gun at this point, having been in a similar situation himself.

"You know, when you lose two games, even if it's by a point or last-minute try, the pressure does start to build," he said. "I've been there. I certainly know how quickly it can get to you. And when that happens you normally fall back on what works for you.

"We very much expect them to try to squeeze us with the kicking game."

Erasmus' masterplan was always to use a split-squad approach for the matches against Scotland and England due to the short six-day turnaround between them, and with his gamble having paid off against the Scots, the Boks now have the luxury of a number of fresh forwards and an all-new backline that has spent the last nine days preparing specifically for this match.

The Boks were pushed much harder than many expected by England in the World Cup semi-final and nearly came unstuck at the penultimate hurdle, and it's something they're keen to avoid a second time around.

Erasmus also explained that the more traditional 5-3 split of forwards and backs on the bench was to counteract the gameplan they expect Borthwick's England to employ.

"Last week after those guys helped the team prepare for Scotland, they turned their heads to England and they started analysing them," Erasmus said.

"We need to make sure we can handle their kicking game, which seems to be something that they really fall back on, and their rush defence which will certainly have a heavy toll on our backs. That's why we went with a 5-3 split. And then hopefully our forwards are still fresh because they didn't all play the full 80 minutes."

As for his decision to pick Manie Libbok at flyhalf, ironically, Erasmus said the No 10's poor performance against England in the World Cup semi-final, which saw him replaced after just 32 minutes, factored into it.

"We like to give a guy a second chance, and it was against England, you know, where we had to make the substitution in the 32nd minute," he added.

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