Johan Ackermann: England don’t have the X-factor to beat Boks

Firstly, I cannot fault Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber for picking the same team as last week for Saturday’s semi-final against England.

When a team plays so well and pulls off a win like the one against France on Sunday it is a good thing to reward those same players the next week, and that is what the Bok coaches have done.

The players will be pumped up and full of confidence and feel they’re ready to deliver the goods again, and why not … it worked so well against France! The time for experimentation and rotation is over … this is the business end of a World Cup.

The team selections last weekend worked a treat … with Duane starting and the likes of Kwagga coming off the bench, and Faf and Pollard and Willie closing out the game.

It is such a balanced matchday-23, it’s the most experienced Bok team ever and so many of those guys faced England in the final four years ago.

Intensity

Now everything comes down to the players and what they do between those four lines over 80 minutes.
The key thing is they must be as focused as they were against France, they need to play with the same intensity … that is the secret. There must be no let up.

They need the same hunger and passion as last week to be on display this week … if they manage that I can’t see them being beaten, and then it’s just the final to go.

England have had some good victories at the tournament and individually they have some good players, and in sport anything can happen … just look at what the Dutch did to the Proteas at the Cricket World Cup … so it’s important for the Boks to stay focused on the job at hand.

I know quite a few of the English players, from my days at Gloucester, and there are many quality guys there, but I don’t think this group of players is a well-oiled team yet.

Standard of rugby

The questions I ask myself are: Will their pack match the Boks in the set-pieces? Will they handle the pressure of the Bok defence? Will they be able to deal with the intensity and the power of the Boks over 80 minutes?

The Boks have the experience of playing in a lot of knockout rugby in recent years and their standard of play is just so much higher than what England have been up against at this World Cup and been able to achieve themselves in recent times … so the interesting thing is, what will they try come up with to really put the Boks under pressure?

They’re not like France or the All Blacks who have X-factor in the team and players who can lift the tempo and really change things up. With respect to them, England will need to produce something really special to beat this Bok team, but I can’t see it happening.

I also think New Zealand will beat Argentina … so hopefully we can talk about a Bok-All Blacks final next week, and what a match that will be.