Despite their recent defeats to New Zealand and Australia, England remains a formidable opponent, as acknowledged by Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus.

In anticipation of the response, Erasmus has gone back to his trusted soldiers for the England match at Allianz Stadium on Saturday, as he has made 12 changes.

As Sportswire revealed a couple of days ago, there is no space for veteran winger Makazole Mapimpi even though he crossed over the white line twice last weekend as they beat Scotland.  

His place has been taken by Kurt-Lee Arendse, and Canan Moodie, who was on another wing last weekend and offered little to get closer to the try-line, has been replaced by Cheslin Kolbe.  

At the fullback position, Erasmus has restored Aphelele Fassi instead of chasing-the-century Willie le Roux, with the former having had a blinding season both with his club the Sharks, and the national team.

From the starting line-up side that beat England in the semi-final of last year’s Rugby World Cup the last time these two met, six players are absent from this squad. These players are Steven Kitshoff, Frans Malherbe, Franco Mostert, Duane Vermeulen and Damian Willemse. Cobus Reinach is on the bench in this game.  

Four of those players are injured while Vermeulen retired at the end of the World Cup triumph, but he is part of the Boks coaching staff in the United Kingdom.  

Just like that match played at Stade de France in the World Cup against England where the Springbok went with a 5/3 split, Erasmus has gone with the same formation as Reinach can be called upon to replace Grant Williams in the scrumhalf, Handre Pollard can replace Manie Libbok in the flyhalf role. Pollard can also play at the centre as he enjoys those collisions.  

Lukhanyo Am, whose place has been taken by in-form Jesse Kriel, will provide cover in the center.  

Erasmus said the reversion to the traditional five-three split was a response to the challenge he expected England to pose. 

“England poses a completely different challenge to Scotland, and we selected our squad based on what we would like to do in the match and also what we think will be best to counter the challenge England poses,” said the Bok coach. 

“Fortunately, we have quite a few players who can switch positions if necessary, so we feel we have adequate depth throughout the team, which allowed us to select this group of replacements. 

“England come off two narrow defeats, but the quality of their performances was good in both matches, so we size of the challenge. 

“We lost narrowly to Ireland and France in back-to-back matches in 2022 and a year later were world champions so we know we shouldn’t read anything into the last two results.” 

In the last six meetings between the teams, each has recorded three wins, so Erasmus said he anticipated another arm wrestle: “England beat us three times out of four recently and we’ve only won three of the last six matches against them, so we have great respect for them, and we’ll certainly not underestimate them. 

“As I said on Sunday, we will be facing a desperate England team that will give everything on Saturday, so the consistency in our player combinations will be vital for us to deliver the quality of the performance we would like to. 

“It’s going to be vital for the players to gel quickly so hopefully we can start off strongly because we are expecting a full-out 80-minute battle. 

“They are playing at home in front of a passionate home crowd, and we know they will give everything to turn their Series around, so we believe it’s going to be a hard match until the final whistle,” he added. 

Following the England match, the Springboks will conclude their tour with a match against Wales in Cardiff. Erasmus is expected to make further changes to the team to accommodate the different style of play Wales will present.