{"id":675019,"date":"2026-07-05T12:50:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T12:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/675019\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T12:50:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T12:50:07","slug":"four-england-players-who-flopped-against-springboks-and-who-should-replace-them-page-3-of-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/675019\/","title":{"rendered":"Four England players who flopped against Springboks &#8211; and who should replace them &#8211; Page 3 of 3"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jack van Poortvliet<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A surprise starter ahead of Alex Mitchell, Van Poortvliet endured a frustrating afternoon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His best moment came with a sharp snipe and superb offload to Finn Smith, helping England finally unlock the South African defence after falling 17-0 behind.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Unfortunately, that precision proved to be a one-off.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Too many early box kicks lacked effective chasers, while his service from the breakdown often lacked urgency as South Africa applied pressure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He was also unfortunate to get a touch on the ball before Jamie George crossed, leaving the hooker offside and seeing the try ruled out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An ambitious pass was then almost intercepted by Grant Williams shortly before half-time, before a soft knock-on preceded his departure after 54 minutes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Replacement: Alex Mitchell<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mitchell should return to the starting XV against Fiji. His speed of service and ability to increase the tempo remain crucial to England\u2019s attack.<\/p>\n<p>Quiz: Name these 10 retro rugby players<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">From jaw-dropping tries to unforgettable moments (and yes, some questionable haircuts), these players defined a golden era of the game. If their names don\u2019t instantly come to mind, we suggest a quick trip to YouTube to jog your memory. Trust us, it\u2019s worth it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ready to test your knowledge? Let\u2019s see if you\u2019ve still got it. Good luck!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jack van Poortvliet A surprise starter ahead of Alex Mitchell, Van Poortvliet endured a frustrating afternoon. His best&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":675020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-675019","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\/675019","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=675019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}