EDDIE JONES says England have to conquer South Africa’s HATRED and HISTORY if they are to stop the rot on tour.
The Red Rose have only ever won three Test matches in the Rainbow Nation – and head to the southern hemisphere on the back of their worst ever Six Nations and heaviest ever Twickenham defeat – to the Barbarians.
To make matters worse, only one of those Springboks wins has come at Johannesburg’s iconic Ellis Park Stadium – and that was incredibly 46 years ago in 1972.
So ahead of the First Test in Jo’burg on June 9, under-pressure boss Jones said: “It always comes down to the fact that the first thing you’ve got to do is beat history.
“History shows that England have never won a series in South Africa. I’ve got a reasonable understanding.
“I probably understand the South African rugby psyche as well as any having had experiences there.
“And I know what they are going to be like when they play England. There are certain cultural issues between the two countries that provide great motivation for the South Africans. You have to be able to exploit that and use it in a positive way.
“How can you use their dislike of the English to create an opportunity for yourself because you know at Ellis Park they will be unbelievably passionate and aggressive for the first 20 minutes.
“That creates opportunities for us. We have to be good enough to understand those opportunities and execute them.
“They need to understand why it is like that and why English teams haven’t won there in the past and then come up with an approach of how we will be ourselves.
“Like in any game of rugby, any physical contact sport, you have to understand the psychology of the opposition. You have to understand where they get their strength from.”
Confidence is at rock-bottom after England slipped to a shock four-game losing run to a Baabaas side put together after three training sessions – and most of them were with a stinking hangover.
But Jones will be hoping that his world-class Saracens stars Mako and Billy Vunipola, skipper Owen Farrell and Maro Itoje amongst others can boost his squad after their classy Premiership final win against Exeter Chiefs.
The southern hemisphere touring party will meet up at Pennyhill Park tonight (Tues) with centre Piers Francis and Nathan Hughes set for last-minute call-ups.
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With the squad flying to Johannesburg then onto their Durban base on Saturday, Jones said: “We have to re-educate the 15 players coming in.
“We have made some changes to the way we play. We need to re-educate those players and then at the end of the week we will do a bit of work.
“South Africa have brought back some key players from overseas for leadership and a bit of direction and it’s going to be a challenging series.”
And Sale Sharks rookie Tom Curry, the latest player picked to solve England’s crisis at no.7, is fully aware of just what is coming against the Boks.
The 19-year-old added: “South Africans just want to smash the English, it is what it is. We’re pretty prepared from under 18s, 20s, first team, you know what the South Africans are going to bring.”
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