'They will need to improve considerably to beat the Boks'

England and South Africa put their unbeaten Novembers on the line on Saturday as they meet for the first time since the 2019 World Cup final.

Eddie Jones’ side have enjoyed victories over Tonga and Australia while Jacques Nienaber’s side have beaten Wales and Scotland this month. The hosts have picked up some casualties along the way though, with captain Owen Farrell ruled out of Saturday’s match with an ankle injury and Jamie George ruled out with a knee injury. Gloucester’s front row duo of Harry Elrington and Jack Singleton have been called up in their place.

The All Blacks‘ loss to Ireland on Saturday also meant the Springboks returned to number one in the world rankings, while England sit in third.

Springbok captain Siyamthanda Kolisi speaks about the vexed issue of transformation

Springbok captain Siyamthanda Kolisi speaks about the vexed issue of transformation

When, where and how to watch the match
The match will kick-off at 15:15 (GMT) on Saturday November 20th at Twickenham and will be broadcast live on Amazon Prime.

Head-to-head
Across their 43 encounters, South Africa have won 26 matches to England’s 15, with two draws. Since 2006, the Springboks have beaten England 14 times and have only tasted defeated on three occasions, with one draw. However, those three wins for England have come under Eddie Jones, who has a 50 percent win record agains the world champions with England.

Match odds from bet365
bet365  have the handicap on England at +1. There are also 9/2 odds that England win the match with a margin of 1-5 points and 4/1 that the Springboks win by the same margin.

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Prediction
England’s World Cup winning coach Sir Clive Woodward saw some promising signs in England’s 32-15 win over the Wallabies, but stressed in the Mail Online that there needs to be a major improvement if they are going to challenge this week’s visitors.

“England unquestionably deserved to win and that late score by Jamie Blamire put a gloss on proceedings but Eddie won’t be fooled. There needs to be a big step up against South Africa. England had some fresh young talent on view and there have been promises of a new approach but save for a few cameo moments it wasn’t really there.

“You want to play the kind of game that earned you international selection in the first place. So there is plenty to work on for England after Saturday. I would expect much better against South Africa and they will need to improve considerably to beat the Boks.”

*Odds accurate as of 17/11/21.