Rugby World Cup: Semi-final previews
The fashion in Paris is to carry small, fluffy dogs around rather in the manner of a handbag that pants when it is too warm. There does not seem to be a great deal of point to the exercise, or lack of it, but the French capital always has lived by its own rules. For the underdogs of England, their first Parisian assignment six weeks into this Rugby World Cup arrives tomorrow night. This is the time and place to find their bark.
It is a long time since an England versus South Africa clash has been teed up as so one-sided and at a tournament where Steve Borthwick’s side are the only unbeaten side left to boot. If they believed the bookies it would hardly be worth their while turning up at the Stade de France.
But past experience counts for something and there are plenty in their ranks who know South Africa are beatable because they have savoured the feeling of beating the Boks themselves. Tom Curry who has done so four times already in his career, three times with England and once with the Lions.
“I understand what it takes and it’s going to be a lot so I can’t wait to go after it this weekend,” said Curry. “We are here, having a great time and we can’t wait to get stuck in tomorrow. Playing against sides like that is exciting. You know what you need to do, it is about doing it and getting the job done on Saturday.
“For me there’s no better place you’d rather be than in a semi-final against South Africa. If that’s not enough to get you up for a game then I don’t know what will.”
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For Curry, it has been a rollercoaster tournament having been red-carded against Argentina for a head-on-head contact with Juan Cruz Mallia in the opening game and banned for two matches.
“It has been different to say the least,” said Curry. “Obviously, I’d like to have played a few more minutes, who wouldn’t? He went up, I tried to tackle him, mistimed it and we clashed heads. You usually don’t get up from a tackle with your head bleeding and think: ‘That’s the one’, do you? There was obviously a point where I thought: ‘This could be touch and go’.
“But a ban is not like an injury that holds you back. Apart from 80 minutes on a Saturday you’re able to rip in during training. That helped me a lot.”
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Curry returned for the narrow win against Samoa, when England were distinctly ropey, and Fiji when they needed to be – and were – considerably better. This South African side represents another level entirely, however. Does this limited England have it in them to make the leap? Under Borthwick, they will not fail for a lack of meticulous preparation.
With rain forecast for tomorrow evening England have been training with balls soaked in buckets of water ahead of the match.
“There’s a logistics guy on the sideline with a bucket of water with balls ready to go into,” explained attack coach Richard Wigglesworth. “Whenever we’re swapping or starting a set, that ball will be wet just so we are focusing in on the difference of handling a wet ball versus a dry one.”
The game plan will see the ball in the air a lot. From that base camp, England will aim to apply pressure, squeeze penalties and hope Owen Farrell will get his time management right and outdo Manie Libbock in a shootout. It’s a long shot for England, but with a place in the World Cup final on the line, any shot is better than nothing.
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