England vs South Africa November 15th 2014

First topic message reminder :

Courtney Lawes is a doubt, since he is going through concussion protocols. That would see Kruis start and Kitchener on the bench, unless Lancaster wants to do something funky with Clark. Luther Burrell not in contention, and Stephen Myler still out with a hamstring problem. Haskell is there.

England team to face South Africa:

Mike Brown (Harlequins)
Anthony Watson (Bath)
Brad Barritt (Saracens)
Kyle Eastmond (Bath)
Jonny May (Gloucester)
Owen Farrell (Saracens)
Danny Care (Harlequins)
Joe Marler (Harlequins)
Dylan Hartley (Northampton)
David Wilson (Bath)
Dave Attwood (Bath)
Courtney Lawes (Northampton)
Tom Wood (Northampton)
Chris Robshaw (Harlequins)
Billy Vunipola (Saracens)

Replacements

Rob Webber (Bath), Matt Mullan (Wasps), Kieran Brookes (Newcastle), George Kruis (Saracens), Ben Morgan (Gloucester), Ben Youngs (Leicester), George Ford (Bath), Marland Yarde (Harlequins)

South Africa

15 Willie le Roux,
14 JP Pietersen,
13 Jan Serfontein,

12 Jean de Villiers,
11 Bryan Habana,
10 Pat Lambie,
9 Cobus Reinach,
8 Duane Vermeulen,
7 Schalk Burger,
6 Marcell Coetzee,
5 Victor Matfield,
4 Eben Etzebeth,
3 Jannie du Plessis,
2 Adriaan Strauss,
1 Tendai Mtawarira

Replacements:

16 Bismarck du Plessis,
17 Trevor Nyakane,
18 Coenie Oosthuizen,
19 Bakkies Botha,
20 Teboho “Oupa” Mohoje,
21 Francois Hougaard,
22 Handré Pollard,
23 Cornal Hendricks

England have gone without a win in their last eleven Tests against the Springboks. Their best recent result was a draw in Port Elizabeth in June 2012. The match on Saturday will be almost eight years exactly since England's last victory. England have lost their last four Twickenham encounters.

This is the third time Lancaster has taken England through a round of Autumn Internationals. In 2012, his team beat New Zealand. In 2013, it was Australia. He has never beaten South Africa; his record reads one home loss, two away losses and one away draw.

Garvey at 6

Lovely play South Africa

Beautiful try.

Game over. I mean, really. Is this improvement, have we made ANY progress towards closing the gap with these teams? Lovely bit of skill it has to be said.

As soon as Le Roux caught that ball I knew they would score. That's the damn difference

England are a million miles from the SH teams, and from being genuine WC contenders.

That is brilliant from Lambie. Beautiful try.

Billy V has to trust brown to make that tackle

oh dear ... good try though

Got to play for some pride at least. If we fold it could be damaging.

Not quite lost all hope yet...

Beautiful try indeed

great try.

wtf is walsh doing stopping the quick tap

etzebeth yello

GeordieFalcon wrote:England are a million miles from the SH teams, and from being genuine WC contenders.

Agreed. Here is the only way to beat the Boks.

1. Pray you have no injuries
2. Pick your biggest most abrasive pack
3. Never pick Barritt
4. Never pick players out of position
5. Pray, again.

Vunipola off?
I'd have put him to 6 and took Wood off.

cmon lads!

Think vunipola might have got a knock?

Make this yellow count!

I feel for BV here. Agreed Geordie. Wood was the player to go. Although to contradict myself, would have preferred BV at 6

I don't mind Barritt hood.

He's strong,and carries in to traffic well. He's a nice balance.the problem is having Farrell at 10.even worse when he's out of form.

Game on. Don't write off the white orcs in Twickenham.

Care's delivery has also been horrendously slow it must be said

Sort of good how England drove that maul at 45 degrees in a cohesive way. You don't see that very often. The tide is coming back in perhaps?

Wow Ben Morgan has come on like a steam train!

Jesus Ben Morgan, was that grounded?!

Hahaha I don't know whether to laugh. How very English!

Outrageous call from the linesman - massive turning point in the game.

oh yeah. its on.

Horrific decision on Habana though

Yep, Habana was very unlucky there

quinsforever wrote:great try.

wtf is walsh doing stopping the quick tap

yards infront of the mark

If Care had gone outside to May...

That call from the linesman has a potential to spoil a very good comeback. I certainly wasn't happy to see the resulting try.

The Steve Walsh Show (TM) has decided it's on our side today

TJ wrote:

quinsforever wrote:great try.

wtf is walsh doing stopping the quick tap

yards infront of the mark

so why did walsh apologise then

Quick summary from someone please?

Wow

I spoke too soon. Clear holding on in the tackle

3rd gear.

Still a lot in this match I think

great try SA.

Does Farrell have naked photos of Lancaster?

Get Ford on!

farrell, farrell, farrell...

chin up boys

Morgan playing very well.

last week, strauss got binned for touching the jumper in the air. Twickenham crowd very fair for not going mad. habana's touch on watson was identical to strauss's on kearney. neither of which should have been yellows.

I feel like they are grinding us down now

quinsforever wrote:last week, strauss got binned for touching the jumper in the air. Twickenham crowd very fair for not going mad. habana's touch on watson was identical to strauss's on kearney. neither of which should have been yellows.

Strauss got binned for cumulative penalties,ref said it to the captain as he was issuing the yellow.

quinsforever wrote:last week, strauss got binned for touching the jumper in the air. Twickenham crowd very fair for not going mad. habana's touch on watson was identical to strauss's on kearney. neither of which should have been yellows.

should have been a penalty though but I don't think it was spotted

Just whay I wanted to see, bloody Bismarck