Bok fulcrum Ox Nche predicting staunch resistance from England at scrum time

While Steve Borthwick's men endured their worst Six Nations campaign ever, finishing fifth overall and winning just one of their five matches, their scrum was a real positive.

They boasted the best success rate, just shy of 90%, and finished the Championship with a scrum penalty differential of +6 on their own feed and claimed two further penalties on the opposition's feed.

Having done his homework on England's scrum, loosehead prop Nche expects a tough battle in the set-piece at Ellis Park, especially against a side that is itching to get revenge, with his opposing number expressing his disappointment from the 2023 World Cup semifinal.

Ellis Genge was part of the England scrum that conceded a penalty from 40 metres out, which allowed Handre Pollard the opportunity to edge the Springboks into the lead, and he duly slotted it.

"Open wounds, you get f***ing hammered in the scrum," Genge said in an interview with The Daily Mail earlier this year in reference to that game. "Well, not hammered, but your scrum lets you down, and you want to rectify it.

"Like the feeling after that semi of losing by a point and ultimately a penalty 40 metres out coming from our scrum, whether the decision was right or wrong. It hurts, like, thanks for bringing that up. But yeah, so it's an open wound, and you just got to make sure it don't open back up."

The prop does enjoy the added hype the set-piece gets when it comes to facing the Springboks.

"F*** yeah, but they always make a spectacle about it when we play against South Africa, don't they? It gets a lot of airtime," he said. "We've definitely improved massively, and the numbers reflect that as well."

Speaking this week ahead of the Test match at the spiritual home of the Springboks, Nche was under no illusion of the threat that England pose in the set-piece.

"We've got some clips from them, they're very consistent," he said.

"They have got their guys to start working together; they go low, they hit. So, I think it's going to be a pretty big challenge.

"They have also got a lot of younger players who seem excited by scrumming. They have a very good scrum and we are looking forward to the challenge."