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England assistant coach Richard Wigglesworth has cast doubt over whether fly-half Marcus Smith will retain his starting role for Saturday’s match against South Africa.
England face the world champions at Allianz Stadium on Saturday after agonising defeats to New Zealand and Australia over the previous two weekends.
Wigglesworth said England will “look a little bit different” tactically to how they did in those defeats, with a possible area of adjustment being at fly-half where George Ford and Fin Smith are the other options.
“We have three quality 10s that naturally would all see the game slightly differently,” Wigglesworth told Sky Sports News.
“What our job is, is [to ensure that] they’re playing an England way, where you know you’re always going to see things differently, and opportunities differently, and space differently, but within the England style that we want them to get to.
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England prop Ellis Genge says that the ‘messages are clear’ from the coaching staff ahead of their match with world champions South Africa
“So, there would be some little adjustments with those guys coming in, but all three guys can play in a multitude of ways.”
Smith has led impressive attacking displays from England against the two southern hemisphere sides but Steve Borthwick’s squad were beaten 24-22 by the All Blacks, before a last-minute Australia try saw them condemned to a 42-37 loss to the Wallabies.
England now face an even greater task in the form of a South Africa team that just comfortably triumphed over both New Zealand and Australia in the Rugby Championship.
Wigglesworth said: “I think we’d always be tactically flexible in terms of how we adjust to playing different teams, different defences, different styles.
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England wing Tommy Freeman says they are keen to correct mistakes they made in the 42-37 defeat to Australia at Twickenham and suggests they’re confident of beating South Africa
“When you play the double World Cup winners they’re going to demand a lot of you and they’re going to put you under pressure, so you need to be able to deal with that and put them under pressure, and that’s what we’re going to do.
“Tactically, that will look a little bit different than it did last week or the week before or in the summer.”
South Africa intent on using Flannery knowledge of Smith
South Africa want Jerry Flannery to draw on his inside knowledge of Smith to shut the playmaker should he retain his starting role for England.
Flannery has a deep understanding of Smith’s game, gathered during his four-year spell as an assistant coach for Harlequins, a post he held until joining Rassie Erasmus’ Springboks this year.
“Marcus is a class player,” South Africa attacking coach Tony Brown said.
“Given time and space, there’s not too many better at making the most of little opportunities for all the players around him. He’s outstanding at the kick pass.
“Jerry has had a lot of time with Marcus Smith and knows him well. He’ll be under a little bit of pressure to make sure Marcus doesn’t get those opportunities this week.”
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Sky Sports’ Eleanor Roper analyses England’s poor home performance in their Autumn Nations Series 37-42 defeat to Australia
Saturday’s rematch of their World Cup semi-final in Paris 12 months ago is laced with bad blood.
A stormy 16-15 victory for South Africa soon became the subject of a bitter race row after England’s Tom Curry claimed that Bongi Mbonambi had called him a “white ****”.
World Rugby found “insufficient evidence” to support Curry’s allegation and Mbonambi said it was a “misunderstanding” because he was speaking Afrikaans.
Curry has been ruled out of the South Africa showdown because of concussion and scrum-half Cobus Reinach insisted his team could not afford to be drawn into a grudge match.
“If we get into that, it is going to take us away from the actual Test,” Reinach said.
“We need to focus on what is coming on Saturday and how to put our plan on the field. If we lose sight of what we want to do we might be embarrassed or not happy with our performance.”
South Africa captain Siya Kolisi has been cleared to play at Twickenham despite suffering a minor eye injury against Scotland on Sunday.
Watch every game of the 2025 British and Irish Lions tour of Australia, including all three Test matches against the Wallabies, exclusively live on Sky Sports.
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