England must end winless run against South Africa if they want to overhaul New Zealand as world’s best

Strong return: Owen Farrell has impressed since his comeback
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Chris Jones11 November 2016

England’s 10-game winning run and their credibility as potential world No1s are on the line tomorrow.

During the build-up to this Test against South Africa it has been mentioned numerous times that the second best team in the world have not beaten the Springboks since 2006, losing 11 of the 12 matches.

England are favourites to end that run tomorrow, given that South Africa are struggling with injuries and confidence and were hammered 57-15 by the All Blacks in Durban in their last Test five weeks ago.

Over the past decade, New Zealand have beaten South Africa 17 times and lost just six games. Of even more relevance is that the back-to-back World Cup winners have won nine of their last 10 matches with South Africa.

Those are the numbers you would expect from the best team in the sport and why England’s dreadful record has to be turned around at Twickenham.

England also face Fiji, Argentina and Australia in the Old Mutual Wealth Series and an autumn clean sweep would mean they would end the year unbeaten and take their run of victories — which started against Uruguay in the dead World Cup rubber — to 14.

That would allow England to lord it over the All Blacks, whose loss in Chicago against Ireland last week ended their world-record run of 18 straight wins — something England will eclipse if they maintain their winning run to the end of the Six Nations.

A repeat of their Grand Slam would take England to 19 and, while they would not have played New Zealand during that spell, the achievement would impress even the most-sceptical of All Blacks fans.

However, that will all become irrelevant if England fail to defeat South Africa. Eddie Jones has played a blinder during his year in charge and having masterminded Japan’s historic World Cup victory 34-32 over South Africa in Brighton, he is perfectly placed to end England’s Springboks woes.

While the head coach insists that incredible result last year has little relevance to Twickenham, it will provide him with reference points. Japan, with current England forwards coach Steve Borthwick running their lineout, took care of their own ball and played an unstructured game that kept South Africa guessing. Jones knows if you allow the massive Springboks pack to drag you into an extended arm-wrestle it will denude your powers.

With South Africa operating an “in-your-face” rush defence, just flinging passes out wide is reckless and that is why the ball-carrying of Billy and Mako Vunipola working off fly-half George Ford and inside-centre Owen Farrell will be vital. England have to get over the gainline quickly and recycle rapidly to force the big South Africa forwards to back-pedal at pace.

With uncapped Nathan Hughes and Kyle Sinckler on the bench, Jones has enough cavalry to maintain this high-tempo attacking game deep into the final quarter, where New Zealand have been so effective.

While “physical chess”, as Jones describes it, is being played out in the forwards, the result looks certain to be shaped by the metronomic goal-kicking of Farrell, who missed the start of the season with hip and back problems. His first game back was a European Champions Cup match at Toulon and his boot helped Saracens launch the defence of their title with a fantastic win.

Farrell and Ford are crucial to Jones’s vision for the team and they will be told to play in the faces of the South Africa defence. England have turned to rugby league coach Jason Ryles for extra tackling power and the two-man hit option is designed to help shore up Ford’s defensive channel. He is an obvious target and expect to see Farrell swap places with Ford on defence as one variation designed to halt those big South African ball carriers.

Jones gained an insight into the South Africa rugby psyche when he was technical advisor for their 2007 World Cup campaign that ended with them beating England in the final in Paris.

Allister Coetzee was also part of that management group and, as the current South Africa coach, he is under intense pressure from fans questioning his selection policy and tactics.

Coetzee should be facing even more flak after this match as England, even without a raft of injured players including Maro Itoje, George Kruis, James Haskell, Jack Nowell and Anthony Watson, still have enough firepower to end their dreadful run.

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