England take on South Africa at the Stade de France in the semi-finals of this year’s Rugby Union World Cup on Saturday night.
South Africa are the favourites to win the tournament now that we’re down to the final four nations. The winner of this one will face off with the victor between Argentina and New Zealand on Friday night for the World Cup title.
Here, we’ll preview this semi-final match up in the hopes we can figure out who will progress to the big finale.
Better than expected
Before the beginning of this competition, not many people would have given England much chance of reaching it to this phase. Even ahead of the quarter-final clash with Fiji last week, there were plenty doubting Steve Borthwick’s men. They were the favourites with the bookies though and they showed by with a 30-24 win that had plenty of English hearts racing. Their reward for getting through that is a match up with the now world number one side.
The favourites had their own scare in their epic quarter-final match up with hosts France last week. Just two points separated the sides in a first half that ebbed and flowed in momentum and showed just how even;y matched they were. The second half was just as competitive and France took the lead, only for the South Africans to win it via a penalty goal in the 73rd minute. Now their sights are firmly set on England.
Chance of revenge
This is a repeat of the 2019 World Cup Final that took place in the Nissan Stadium in Yokohama, Japan. The first half of that game was a fairly tight encounter, but South Africa edged to a 12-6 lead. The Springboks dominated the second half however and went on to win 32-12 to secure their third World Cup, putting them level with New Zealand at the top of all time winners list. This is a chance for England to get their revenge and prevent their rivals from becoming the outright leaders.
Despite being the favourites, South Africa have had moments where they haven’t completely convinced in this tournament. Their first half against Scotland in their opening group game wasn’t the best, but they did manage to go on and win that one in the end. It was their clash with Ireland that exposed some of their frailties. The Irish were victorious by 13 points to 8 in a game that only saw two tries.
Kicking key
That game with Ireland showed that if a team can be disciplined in defence against South Africa, then they can take advantage of penalty opportunities to win the game. It’s not the most exciting tactic to use, but it’s probably England’s best chance of getting through to a second consecutive World Cup Final. Who knows, if Borthwick’s side can get past the favourites here, they might even go on and win the whole thing for the first time since 2003.
