Steve Borthwick must summon the spirit of 2019 for England to beat South Africa
So here England are again four years on from Japan, heading into a semi-final as underdogs against the World No 1 defending champions.
The difference is that Eddie Jones had been planning that semi-final performance against New Zealand for the best part of two years with the subsequent 19-7 victory coming to define the better part of his tenure as England head coach. Steve Borthwick has six days to enact a plan to topple the Springboks.
By dint of his appointment nine months out from the World Cup, Borthwick has not had the luxury of long-term planning, instead focusing all his efforts into being his mantra of “ready for September 9”, the opening game against Argentina.
What Borthwick can draw upon is the squad’s experience of 2019 and a deep well of conviction that England have been cast as underdogs throughout this tournament. They haven’t. Against Argentina, the teams were dead even. For every other match, they have been heavy favourites.
But we should not let the bookmakers’ odds spoil the internal narrative that has built up within the squad from Borthwick’s “people said we won’t make it out of group” to Maro Itoje saying we have been “pretty much underdogs all tournament.” Against South Africa, they definitely are rank outsiders. Indeed you can still get 14-1 on them winning the whole thing, and this will suit England just fine.
All teams are always in search of extrinsic motivation, which is why they so quickly grasp on to the underdog tag. This is also why the experience of the 2018 Philadelphia Eagles resonated with second row Itoje. The Eagles were unfancied and unloved but ended up beating the all-conquering New England Patriots in a stunning upset in the Super Bowl, leaning heavily into the underdog narrative as articulated by centre Jason Kelce.
“We were a bunch of underdogs,” Kelce said in a speech at the Eagles’ trophy parade. “And you know what an underdog is? It’s a hungry dog. And Jeff Stoutland has had this in our building for five years – it’s a quote in the O-line room that has stood on the wall for the last five years – “Hungry dogs run faster.” And that’s this team.”
This struck an immediate cord with Itoje. “I watched a documentary this week, Kelce on Amazon Prime,” Itoje said. “He said ‘Hungry dogs run faster.’ That’s going to be our goal. We’re going to go in there hungry. We’re going to go in with absolute passion and desire.”
Jones too leant into the underdog narrative against New Zealand, claiming that “pressure is going to be chasing you down the street”. Everything Jones did that week was meticulously planned. The morning after the 40-16 quarter-final victory against Australia, Jones called a 9am team meeting in which he sliced a kiwi fruit in half with a samurai sword. He dominated the media exchanges, making not so veiled insinuations of spying, while the game’s defining image was of Owen Farrell’s smirk as England lined up in a ‘V’ formation against the All Blacks’ haka.
Borthwick is unlikely to reprise any such media tropes and would run a mile from engaging in any form of ‘mind games’. Asked about the biggest lessons that England can draw from the 2019 experience, Itoje pointed to managing their emotional energy during the week.
“We knew they were the No 1 team in the world but it was about what we’re going do and how we are going to play and how we are going to impose ourselves,” Itoje said. “That’s the aim every week, but when you get to this level there’s a heightened emotion and a heightened awareness. There’s something where you can feel the difference in the week. The goal of this week will be not to get too excited too early, build throughout the week and make sure when it comes to Saturday night that we’re absolutely buzzing and ready to go.
“You don’t want to come away from them and think ‘What if?’ What if I did this? What if I did that?’ You want to take the bull by the horns and that is what will be necessary next week.
“You have to attack it. You have to attack every facet of the game. When you get to the semi-final level of World Cups, you are playing the higher quality teams and everything is a contest. Every scrum, every breakdown, every carry, every set piece, you have to make it a contest. Whoever wins the most contests will win the game.”
England ripped into the All Blacks from the off in Yokohama with Manu Tuilagi scoring a try after two minutes that New Zealand struggled to recover from. Hooker Jamie George believes that England must also land the first blow against the Springboks at the Stade de France.
“We were the underdogs in that (2019), no one gave us a chance in that,” George said. “No one will give us a chance again. We don’t mind that. We didn’t play the game too early in the week. We were very clear about how we wanted to approach the game. Ultimately it was us setting the intensity of the game and trying to blow them away, Teams previously hadn’t done that to the All Blacks. We’ll have a look at whoever we’re playing and Steve’s said he’s got a plan.”
