Saturday 24 November 2012

England v South Africa - Preview

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England coach Stuart Lancaster believes winning the battle at the breakdown will be key to his side's hopes against South Africa on Saturday.

England came unstuck against Australia last time out, with South Africa to pose a more physical challenge at Twickenham.

And Lancaster, who has beefed up his pack with Joe Launchbury, Ben Morgan, Tom Wood and Alex Corbisiero and added Ben Youngs and Mike Brown to the backs, said: "We need all our pack to make sure that we are on top of their game to win the breakdown battle, the physical battle, the set piece battle which will be a necessity to win the game.

"If you don't match South Africa physically you aren't going to win. You have to win the gainline battle."

South Africa coach Heyneke Meyer believes Bath flanker Francois Louw can terrorise England once again.

Louw has been in impressive form for the Springboks since re-establish himself in the side - and he was man-of-the-match in the 21-10 win over Scotland last time out.

"Louw has been awesome," said Meyer, who has named an unchanged starting XV. "He is the type of openside I like - superb on the ground, he is also a great ball carrier and he also has stopping power in defence.

"He is the whole package and he has been awesome for us."

England: 15 Alex Goode, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Manu Tuilagi, 12 Brad Barritt, 11 Mike Brown, 10 Toby Flood, 9 Ben Youngs, 1 Alex Corbisiero, 2 Tom Youngs, 3 Dan Cole, 4 Joe Launchbury, 5 Geoff Parling, 6 Tom Wood, 7 Chris Robshaw (c), 8 Ben Morgan. 
Replacements: 16 David Paice, 17 David Wilson, 18 Mako Vunipola, 19 Mouritz Botha, 20 James Haskell, 21 Danny Care, 22 Owen Farrell, 23 Jonathan Joseph.

South Africa: 15 Zane Kirchner, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Juan de Jongh, 12 Jean de Villiers (c), 11 Francois Hougaard, 10 Pat Lambie, 9 Ruan Pienaar, 1 Gurthrö Steenkamp, 2 Adriaan Strauss, 3 Jannie du Pless, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 5 Juandre Kruger, 6 Francois Louw, 7 Willem Alberts, 8 Duane Vermeulen. 
Replacements: 16 Schalk Brits, 17 Heinke van der Merwe, 18 Pat Cilliers, 19 Flip van der Merwe, 20 Marcell Coetzee, 21 Elton Jantjies, 22 Jaco Taute, 23 Lwazi Mvovo.



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