Erasmus: England clash always special as Springboks prepare for 'big, big Test'

Erasmus represented South Africa as a player long before getting involved in coaching the national team and outlined how Tests between the Springboks and England tend to go to the wire.

"I can remember when I was playing, we were going for 18 wins in a row under Nick Mallett, and I will never forget, England took it away from us. It's just a great rivalry always against us," he said.

"I played in the game in the World Cup when Jannie de Beer dropped five drop goals, and we went through to the next stage, and they didn't. And they've done some things when they took some glory away from us.

"Then obviously we had some World Cup finals against them and some pretty important games, some were one-pointers. So, it's always tough. They are one of the countries like us that have a lot of rugby players.

"France has the most, England the second-most, and we have the third-most players in the world, so the strength in their numbers is really good. And then the money in the Premiership, where some of our players play, and the standard of the Premiership is really high, so for us it's an honour playing against them, and we always see it as one of the toughest Test matches.

"Especially for some of the young guys like Cameron (Hanekom) and others playing in this match who haven't played against England, for them it's the first really big, big Test match."

Despite including some inexperienced players such as Hanekom and Zach Porthen on the Springbok bench, Erasmus described his selection as a settled side, and he was looking forward to getting their 2026 Test season off to an encouraging start.

"It's our first match of the season, and we'd like to try and win," he said. "This is a Test match against England. You get big Test matches, and England is certainly one of them."

Erasmus has resisted predicting the make-up of the England team that his Springboks will face on Saturday in Johannesburg, claiming he doesn't want to create a "big story" like what happened the last time before the countries played each other.

It was November 2024 when Erasmus gazumped his counterpart Steve Borthwick by naming the English XV he expected to run out at Twickenham.

Speaking before England confirmed their side for that Autumn Nations Series clash 19 months ago, Erasmus, for instance, correctly predicted that Freddie Steward would be reinstated in the number 15 shirt, and he was proven correct when Borthwick eventually named his side.

Over a year and a half on from that 29-20 win in London for the Springboks, Erasmus is now preparing with his players in Johannesburg ahead of Saturday's Nations Championship opener against the English.

Taking control of the build-up to the match, Erasmus decided to unveil his matchday 23 on Monday, five days before the Ellis Park clash, but he sidestepped an invitation to scoop Borthwick a second time and reveal at a media briefing what the latest English side would be.

"I didn't know last time it would make such a big story," quipped Erasmus. "We've got an idea, but it's a guestimate. We have an idea, but I am not going to read it out again, and then it's a big story. Obviously, we calculate and summarise and do profiles on them, but we are not sure 100 per cent."

While Erasmus refused to name the names of the players he feels Borthwick will select, he was more forthcoming discussing the Springboks' recruitment of Joe Lewis, an England analyst for the last nine years.

It was just over a fortnight after the recent Six Nations ended in a derisory fifth-place finish for England, and SA Rugby confirmed it had recruited Lewis, the English team's head analyst from 2017 to 2021 and senior analyst from 2022 until the conclusion of the 2026 Six Nations.

This capture of Lewis means that his first Test match with the Springboks will see him come up against England, and Erasmus was asked about how useful it could be for this weekend's game having the inside track on Borthwick's tactics.

"Of course, he [Lewis] is familiar with England, without a doubt. It's like when Matthew Proudfoot moved away from us in 2019, and the next year we played England.

"There is a guy called Byron McGuigan (now involved with England as defence coach); he spent a whole week with us as a Sale Sharks coach, and I am pretty sure he has got a lot of stuff on us. Eddie Jones moved from Australia to England and then from Australia to Japan, and obviously some IP gets transferred. The same with Joe."

Asked why the reigning back-to-back World Cup champions felt the need to bring in Lewis for the 2026 campaign, Erasmus explained he felt the Springboks were under-resourced in the area. "We always had only one analyst," he claimed.

"If you look at any of the tier one nations, some of them have five. I think the French have got eight guys. England also has a lot. We were looking for another analyst, and Joe was available. We always scan everyone.

"Paddy (Sullivan), the Irishman, worked in the French league a hell of a lot, so you get some good info and good things that they do in that league analysis-wise. And obviously, if you get a guy of his [Lewis'] calibre being available, it's fantastic to have him here - and he was available.

"We only had two analysts; we have three now. I still think we are far off the other countries, the other tier one nations that have got more analysts.

"We were always in the mode of just one analyst covering data, and then the coaches would filter it. What Paddy, Lindsay (Weyer) and Joe bring to us now, we have got them all in different departments.

"Paddy is with the scrums and the lineout; Lyndsey is with the backline, and then Joe is with the attack, and then they rotate a little bit. It's good to get a fresh voice with new ideas in."