{"id":654552,"date":"2026-06-23T19:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T19:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/654552\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T19:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T19:56:09","slug":"marcus-smith-vows-england-will-leave-it-all-out-there-against-south-africa-england-rugby-union-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/654552\/","title":{"rendered":"Marcus Smith vows England will \u2018leave it all out there\u2019 against South Africa | England rugby union team"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marcus Smith says England are flying south determined to make a fast and furious start to the new Nations Championship at South Africa\u2019s expense next week. A 36-man squad will touch down in Johannesburg on Thursday and Smith says there is a shared desire to rise to the high-altitude challenge of upsetting the world champions<\/a> in their backyard.<\/p>\n

England have been training in oxygen masks in Bagshot to prepare themselves for the Highveld and, with games against Fiji and Argentina to follow, are conscious of the need to make an early impression against the Springboks. \u201cIt\u2019s one shot,\u201d said Smith, who has now played 50 Tests for his country. \u201cWe\u2019ve spoken about leaving it all out there. It\u2019s a hell of an opportunity. I don\u2019t think England have been there since 2018 so we could create history, going down there to deliver a result.<\/p>\n

\u201cEnglish teams and boys have had success down in South Africa with their club sides<\/a>, so we will try to pool that knowledge and information to make sure we\u2019re best prepared. We know that if we want to be [in the finals] we\u2019ve got to start fast and start well. I guess there\u2019s no bigger test than South Africa in Johannesburg. They\u2019ve been leading the way in world rugby for a few years now but it\u2019s a challenge we\u2019re definitely up for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith, who featured on the 2021 British & Irish Lions tour in South Africa<\/a>, says England also know it will be an uphill struggle to recover from a poor start given the structure of the new tournament, which has replaced the traditional summer tour.<\/p>\n

The defence coach, Richard Wigglesworth, has made clear, however, that England will not be using their fiendish travel itinerary as an excuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a massive challenge but you can either see it as a massive hindrance or something really exciting that none of the other teams have to do,\u201d said Wigglesworth. \u201cWe\u2019re going to get stuck into that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re long flights but we\u2019re lying down for most of it. There\u2019s people doing far worse things. We\u2019ll get on with it and rip into the exciting part of the challenge. It puts you in good stead for your resilience. That can\u2019t be an excuse for us. We have to hit the ground running.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among other hurdles in their way is the presence in the Springbok coaching set-up of Felix Jones and analyst Joe Lewis, both former Rugby Football Union employees. Wigglesworth declined to reveal whether England have been forced to change their tactical calls \u2013 \u201cKnowing Joe as I do, I definitely don\u2019t want to say if I\u2019ve taken any measures or not\u201d \u2013 but suggested it would not determine the game\u2019s outcome. \u201cI think you could sit and overthink it or carry on and go: \u2018What are we going to do?\u2019 We\u2019ve chosen that approach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quick GuideEngland’s Nations Championship squadShow<\/p>\n

Forwards: Ollie Chessum (Leicester Tigers), Arthur Clark (Gloucester Rugby), Alex Coles (Northampton Saints), Luke Cowan-Dickie (Sale Sharks), Tom Curry (Sale Sharks), Theo Dan (Saracens), Ben Earl (Saracens), Charlie Ewels (Bath Rugby), Greg Fisilau (Exeter Chiefs), Ellis Genge (Bristol Bears), Jamie George (Saracens, capt), Joe Heyes (Leicester Tigers), Ted Hill (Bath Rugby), George Kloska (Bristol Bears), George Martin (Leicester Tigers), Beno Obano (Bath Rugby), Asher Opoku-Fordjour (Sale Sharks), Guy Pepper (Bath Rugby), Henry Pollock (Northampton Saints), Vilikesa Sela (Bath Rugby).
Backs: Seb Atkinson (Gloucester Rugby), Noah Caluori (Saracens), Immanuel Feyi-Waboso (Exeter Chiefs), George Ford (Sale Sharks), Tommy Freeman (Northampton Saints), George Furbank (Northampton Saints), Benhard Janse van Rensburg (Bristol Bears), Alex Mitchell (Northampton Saints), Cadan Murley (Harlequins), Max Ojomoh (Bath Rugby), Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs), Fin Smith (Northampton Saints), Marcus Smith (Harlequins), Ben Spencer (Bath Rugby), Freddie Steward (Leicester Tigers), Jack van Poortvliet (Leicester Tigers).<\/p>\n

Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n

South Africa\u2019s head coach, Rassie Erasmus, meanwhile, says the Boks will be respectful of their opponents. \u201cThe England squad is good \u2013 their average age is about 27, and Test caps around 32, so it\u2019s a young yet experienced squad,\u201d said Erasmus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a few older players in their 30s, which brings the experience, but the young guys will add fearlessness into a team that was in the 2023 World Cup semi-final and who have competed really well off the back of the Premiership. It\u2019s a very competitive squad and we know we\u2019ll have to work really hard at Ellis Park next week if we want to get a win.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also offered words of welcome to England\u2019s young flanker Henry Pollock, who has already caught the eye of the South African public. \u201cHe\u2019s like Siya Kolisi. People make a big deal about certain players but I don\u2019t always think the players themselves want that attention. What counts is what they do on the field and recently, he\u2019s been doing that. If I were coaching him, I\u2019d only look at his output, and that has been\u00a0exceptional.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marcus Smith says England are flying south determined to make a fast and furious start to the new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-654552","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\/654552","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=654552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}