{"id":679292,"date":"2026-07-07T22:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T22:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/679292\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T22:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T22:29:09","slug":"janse-van-rensburg-poised-to-face-fiji-as-england-look-to-rebound-from-boks-defeat-england-rugby-union-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/679292\/","title":{"rendered":"Janse van Rensburg poised to face Fiji as England look to rebound from Boks defeat | England rugby union team"},"content":{"rendered":"

England\u2019s rugby players could be forgiven for wondering which way is up. On Sunday they were in South\u00a0Africa, next Monday they will be in South America and they are now in sub\u2011Saharan Surrey preparing to face Fiji in Liverpool this Saturday. Ironically it is warmer in Bagshot this week than it is in Suva, albeit with fewer coral reefs and fresh coconuts.<\/p>\n

Regardless of the rotating backdrop, though, there is no \u00addisguising the lingering disappointment of the\u00a045-21 defeat against the \u00adSpringboks in Johannesburg last weekend. \u00adVictory at Everton\u2019s Hill Dickinson Stadium would not repair everything overnight but there is widespread \u00adacceptance within the camp that\u00a0they need to rebound strongly on Saturday.<\/p>\n

On the personnel front England will be without the injured Beno Obano and Cadan Murley, whose \u00adrespective hamstring and shoulder problems have led to call-ups for Manny \u00adIyogun and Chandler Cunningham-South. Otherwise Freddie Steward is back and available for selection, while Steve Borthwick seems in no rush to rest one or two key forwards at the fag end of a long season. Jamie George, for example, is set to lead the side again with England clearly determined not to sleepwalk into a sixth successive Test defeat with a heavily rotated lineup.<\/p>\n

There is likely to be a role, never\u00adtheless, for the newly qualified Benhard Janse van Rensburg when England confirm their starting team on Thursday, with the defence coach Richard Wigglesworth happy to talk up the South Africa-born centre. \u201cHe brings an all-court game, doesn\u2019t he? I enjoy how he wants to hit and loves the physical side of the game, but he also wants the ball on the other side. If he gets a chance I\u2019m sure that\u2019s what he\u2019ll show us as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wigglesworth, who hails from Lancashire, is also looking forward to heading back to the north-west of England, where Test rugby union is rarer than freshly served unicorn. \u201cI\u2019m pretty passionate about rugby in the north and what can be done there,\u201d the former international scrum-half said. As he well knows, though, there will be precious few northern converts if England don\u2019t lift their game sig\u00adnificantly in several areas.<\/p>\n

Chandler Cunningham-South has been called up for England as injury cover for the Fiji match. Photograph: Tom Jenkins\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

High on their list, he suggests, is more contestable kicking success, greater accuracy and sharper decision making, particularly against a team such as Fiji, who thrive on loose\u00a0balls and sub-par defending. \u201cThere was a lot of effort and endeavour [against South Africa],\u201d Wigglesworth said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut for 10 minutes at the start of each half we weren\u2019t good enough, and a good team exposes that. They were very accurate and we weren\u2019t, and they ended up with all the possession and momentum. The middle part of the match didn\u2019t look like that, but it\u2019s an 80-minute game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Specifically the management are looking to reduce the penalty count and to keep 15 players on the field, having finished the Ellis Park game with 13 after yellow cards for Tommy Freeman and Guy Pepper. \u201cIn the Six\u00a0Nations there was some breakdown decision making that is going to cost you in a Test match. These ones [against South Africa] were high force, high speed. It\u2019s \u00adsplit\u2011second stuff. These are the lessons that as a young team, as individuals, you have to remember. They didn\u2019t need a \u00adbollocking, but that doesn\u2019t mean we\u2019ve not addressed and debriefed it\u00a0as we always do.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ve lost for England and I know a bit about what they might be carrying, so they don\u2019t need the guy walking around with a sour face going: \u2018Can\u2019t believe we did this and that.\u2019 They need support and good coaching. Is that a prod sometimes? Absolutely, but sometimes it\u2019s an arm around the shoulder. Our job as coaches is to give them what they need, not what we want.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England\u2019s rugby players could be forgiven for wondering which way is up. On Sunday they were in South\u00a0Africa,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-679292","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\/679292","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=679292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}