{"id":459574,"date":"2026-03-05T22:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T22:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/459574\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T22:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T22:00:09","slug":"rassie-erasmus-heavily-implies-england-winning-streak-was-padded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/459574\/","title":{"rendered":"Rassie Erasmus heavily implies England winning streak was padded"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rassie Erasmus knows what to expect from England. Steve Borthwick\u2019s men\u00a0could arrive in South Africa<\/a> in July, for the start of the Nations Championship, with just one win in 2026 to their credit.<\/p>\n

Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus<\/a> also put England<\/a> on notice ahead of a crucial Six Nations<\/a> trip to Rome and a Round Four face-off with Italy.<\/p>\n

England, pre-tournament favourites along with France, have lost their way.<\/p>\n

Despite starting the Six Nations with a comprehensive 48-7 drubbing of a winless Wales<\/a> team, the wheels have come off at Twickenham.<\/p>\n

Losses to Scotland (20-31) and Ireland (21-42) have seen England drop to fourth on the Six Nations table.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

South Africa <\/p>\n

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England <\/p>\n

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With away games against Italy<\/a> and France<\/a> in Paris there is no guarantee they will collect another W before July.<\/p>\n

Erasmus, looking towards the start of a 13-match Test season for the Springboks, said he knows what to expect from England, despite their current slump in form.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not going to be easy,\u201d Erasmus told a media briefing in Cape Town, adding: \u201cThey will be a tough challenge.<\/p>\n

The Springboks will kick off a novel 2026 season against the Barbarians<\/a> in Port Elizabeth on Saturday, June 20, exactly two weeks before their inaugural Nations Championship match against England at Ellis Park.<\/p>\n

The Barbarians game has some added \u2018spice\u2019 with the coaching quartet headed by former All Black head coach Scott Robertson<\/a> and Los Pumas<\/a> coach Felipe Contepomi<\/a>, who will be supported by Racing 92<\/a> coach Patrice Collazo and Argentina<\/a> assistant coach Kenny Lynn.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll have a look at how we head into that encounter with the Baabaas, and in what shape we get into that England Test.\u201d<\/p>\n

The wily Bok mentor added that the result will determine his selection policy.<\/p>\n

If the results go their way and South Africa go on a winning streak, Erasmus might be tempted to rotate more than when things go pear-shaped.<\/p>\n

Erasmus suggested he could use more than the 51 that featured in the Green and Gold last year, or perhaps as few as 37 if the result don\u2019t go the Boks\u2019 way.<\/p>\n

Asked about England\u2019s winning streak before the Six Nations slump, the Bok coach called for some perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a bit like saying a guy is fast because he ran past someone, but you must ask who he ran past. Was it a prop or a laaitie [young player] who just started playing rugby?<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen teams build up good records you must look carefully at who they beat,\u201d he said of England\u2019s 12-match winning streak that ended in February.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe New Zealand\u2019s loss to England [in November] puts our [43-10] win against New Zealand [in Wellington] into perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey [the All Blacks<\/a>] weren\u2019t at their best, we all know that.<\/p>\n

\u201cEngland beat New Zealand, but what other big teams did they beat?\u201d<\/p>\n

Erasmus also issued England with a warning ahead of Saturday\u2019s Italian job in Rome.<\/p>\n

Erasmus raised eyebrows in November when tipping perennial also-rans Italy to finish second or third in this championship.<\/p>\n

Having beaten Scotland<\/a> and given Ireland<\/a> a mighty fright in Dublin, the Azzurri sit level on points with England and fancy their chances of a historic first ever win.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know how much tighter that England team might have become after those two losses,\u201d Erasmus told the media briefing.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut Italy are in with a chance and that won\u2019t frighten them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always found that fuels them. The moment they feel they really have a chance that actually makes them more dangerous.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me there\u2019s a competitiveness about them, very in your face. They don\u2019t apologise for having line speed. They believe in what they\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir coach is a great coach. The whole world has a lot of respect for him. And if every guy is fit they really have a quality group.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rassie Erasmus knows what to expect from England. Steve Borthwick\u2019s men\u00a0could arrive in South Africa in July, for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-459574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459574","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=459574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}