England vs South Africa: Stuart Lancaster tells England to sharpen up for Springbok match

Care and Vunipola under threat for Springbok match as coach demands ‘80-minute performance’ from injury-hit squad

George Ford in the thick of the action during England training at Pennyhill Park ahead of Saturday’s match against South Africa at Twickenham (Getty)

A third of England’s current starting line-up are under the care of the red-rose medical staff ahead of this weekend’s must-win game against South Africa at Twickenham, but the head coach, Stuart Lancaster, remains confident he will be able to pick from strength. And those selected will be well aware that an improvement is required following a “pretty honest” review of Saturday’s bitterly disappointing defeat by the All Blacks.

“There is definitely a lot of frustration in the group,” Lancaster said yesterday, “and we haven’t glossed over anything in going into the reasons why, having played well in the first half, we left ourselves no margin for error and failed to respond when they upped their game after the interval.

“We’ll need to find a complete, 80-minute performance against the Springboks because I’ve no doubt there will be a reaction from them following their defeat in Ireland. The events of last weekend have made this match even more significant for both teams. South Africa came up here off the back of a strong finish to the Rugby Championship, where they beat the All Blacks, and would have been confident of doing well. As for us, we’re being pretty hard on ourselves for not taking our opportunities, which is something we have to start putting right.”

Two members of an already battered tight-five unit – the hooker Dylan Hartley and the lock Courtney Lawes – are suffering from concussion after taking smacks to the head during the All Blacks game and will have to pass a cognitive test early on Thursday morning if they are to face the Springboks, the one major side Lancaster’s England have yet to beat.

Another member of the heavy mob, Lawes’ in-form boilerhouse partner Dave Attwood, picked up a knee injury against the New Zealanders, while the new wing Semesa Rokoduguni and the centre Kyle Eastmond have contrasting issues of their own. Rokoduguni is struggling with a hip problem while his Bath clubmate has a sickness bug.

Courtney Lawes is suffering from concussion after taking a blow against the All Blacks (Getty)

While Lancaster’s first instinct is to restrict changes to a bare minimum – “You feel you want to give people a second chance after just one game,” he said yesterday – the casualty list may force him to reconsider. There again, he is already reconsidering. Disappointed at some of the lapses in discipline that presented the world champions with cheap points and deeply concerned at obvious failures in game management during a one-sided second half, he may tweak things in a couple of positions.

Danny Care, the Harlequins scrum-half, finds himself under pressure from Ben Youngs of Leicester – “our exiting from half-back against New Zealand was not good enough,” said Lancaster bluntly, referring to the flawed execution of the team’s pressure-relieving strategy in their own territory – while the Gloucester No 8 Ben Morgan received a number of mentions in dispatches and may be given the nod ahead of Billy Vunipola of Saracens, who is a natural impact player off the bench.

A good deal of thought is also being given to fielding a new playmaking combination, with George Ford of Bath starting at outside-half and Owen Farrell returning to the inside centre role he performed in his early Tests in 2012. However, the optimum moment to unleash this midfield upheaval would be the meeting with Samoa on Saturday week. If Lancaster feels he cannot avoid making changes to the inside back formation, he may recall the Gloucester centre Billy Twelvetrees, who would give England a greater range of options with his strong kicking game.

Despite the frustrating defeat by the All Blacks, Lancaster dismissed the notion that lasting damage had been done, in a psychological way at least. “I don’t think our self-belief has been dented in the sense that there’s suddenly a feeling that we’re heading in the wrong direction,” Lancaster said.

As if he did not have enough on his plate, the coach also learnt that Hartley, far and away the No 1 hooker in the England set-up, was being linked by French media with a move across the water to Montpellier at the end of the season. This would not affect the Northampton captain’s commitments at next year’s home World Cup, but as it is Rugby Football Union policy not to pick from abroad if it can possibly be avoided, it would certainly put him off-limits thereafter.

“This is the first I’ve heard of it,” Lancaster said. “It’s a fact of life that players go out of contract at the end of a season, but I’ve never seen anyone distracted by that kind of thing while they’re in camp. I’m very confident that people with international ambitions will remain in England. Certainly the younger players.”