{"id":294245,"date":"2025-12-02T04:25:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T04:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/294245\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T04:25:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T04:25:13","slug":"rassie-sends-england-a-message-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/294245\/","title":{"rendered":"Rassie sends England a message &#8211; south africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/p>\n<p>SOCIAL SPOTLIGHT: The 2025 Test season isn\u2019t even cold yet, but Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus has already shifted his focus to his first task in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Erasmus is somewhat notorious for following his upcoming opponents on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) ahead of a clash, and he has done so again by following the England Rugby account.<\/p>\n<p>The World Champions welcome Steve Borthwick\u2019s in-form side in the opening round of the newly formed Nations Cup on July 4.<\/p>\n<p>The two proud nations share a rich history, especially in recent times, starting when the Boks smashed the Roses by 32-12 in the 2019 World Cup Final.<\/p>\n<p>England and South Africa have met on four occasions since, with the Boks winning the last three, including a heart-stopping RWC semifinal in 2023.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Rassie-follows-England.png.webp\" class=\"lazy\" alt=\"Rassie sends England a message\" width=\"620\" height=\"265\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The Boks come off a successful 2025 season, winning 12 Tests from 14. They also won an international friendly against the Barbarians.<\/p>\n<p>Erasmus\u2019s troops go into the England clash on an eight-match winning streak.<\/p>\n<p>Borthwick\u2019s England is on an 11-game winning run, losing just one Test this season in their Six Nations season-opener against Ireland.<\/p>\n<p>Many pundits claim the Test will determine who is the world\u2019s best team following England\u2019s victory over New Zealand in November.<\/p>\n<p>England is currently ranked third behind New Zealand and the Boks, who ended the year in the No.1 position in the world rankings.<\/p>\n<p>The Nations Series will be perfect preparation for the Boks ahead of their Greatest Rivalry Tour series against the All Blacks starting in August 2026.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SOCIAL SPOTLIGHT: The 2025 Test season isn\u2019t even cold yet, but Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus has already shifted&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-294245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}