England must strike at Bok backs

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France defence coach Shaun Edwards has given England some attacking advice ahead of their Test against the Springboks at Twickenham on Saturday.

The 56-year-old, who helped France beat the Boks in Marseille two weeks ago, is backing England to win “by one score”.

“It’s best to attack South Africa off first-phase strike moves, when all the forwards are still around the scrum or the lineout,” Edwards wrote in his Daily Mail column.

“When the entire Springbok team get into defensive mode it is very difficult to make yardage up the middle because their players are so big and strong. You don’t make many yards when you are running straight into guys such as Eben Etzebeth. It’s so difficult to have success by launching runners straight off the scrumhalf against the Boks. You need to catch them before they find that structure.”

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Edwards says England should also look to attack off “second ball” after launching box kicks or up-and-unders as another way to attack against an “unstructured” Bok defence.

“I stole that phrase from football, where they used to hoof it up to someone like Alan Shearer to get possession and then quickly attack off his knockdowns,” he explained. “Freddie Steward is the best in the world at chasing kicks and if he can provide quick ‘second ball’ behind enemy lines then they can cause problems.”

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Edwards also warned England to watch out for 82-cap Willie le Roux, who will start at fullback for the Boks on Saturday.

“Le Roux was doubling up as a second flyhalf against us, orchestrating a lot of their attack. How do you defend against that? We worked hard on the connection in our defensive unit, with no one jumping out of the line.”

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Photo: David Rogers/Getty Images

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Simon Borchardt