South Africa's Siya Kolisi makes a break during the Autumn Nations Series International rugby union test match between Scotland and South Africa at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh Springbok skipper Siya Kolisi said England will be highly motivated for their clash at Twickenham on Saturday. Picture: Paul Ellis/AFP
Image: Paul Ellis/AFP
Springbok skipper Siya Kolisi will not be underestimating an England team smarting from defeat, ahead of their clash at Twickenham on Saturday.
Hosts England suffered a shock 42-37 defeat to Australia last week, while the Springboks ran out convincing 32-15 winners in Edinburgh.
The Springbok victory came as a welcome result as they ran in a couple late tries, in an admittedly below-par performance from the Rugby World Cup champions.
“They will be dangerous because we know how it feels to lose a few games in a row and what it took to turn things up again,” said Kolisi.
“We lost a few on the trot in Australia before, and such a situation can definitely pull a team together. They are also playing at home and will have their home crowd behind them, so we they’ll be geared up for the challenge.”
The Springboks have also lost three of their last four matches at Twickenham, and it’s a record Kolisi wants to set about rectifying.
“We want to rectify our record here as a team (the Boks have lost three of their last four matches at the iconic stadium), and although we won last week (against Scotland), we have high standards, and it’s important for us to return to those standards as a group.
“Playing at Twickenham is very special for opposition teams. And for them, as well as for the team, it's huge.
“The crowd will get behind them. And also our record here is one that we also want to rectify. We've got a lot to play for. And we've got a lot to fix from last week.
“We won last week, but you could see the players weren’t happy with the way we played. Of course we want to win, but because there’s so much that we want to rectify, this is a very important game for us as a group.”
The match kicks off at 7.40pm SA time on Saturday.
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