South Africa captain Siya Kolisi declared he and his teammates were ready and motivated for the World Cup semi-final against England on Saturday night at the Stade de France.
Kolisi, the first Black man to skipper the national rugby union team, led the South Africans to their third World Cup title four years ago with a 32-12 destruction of England in Yokohama.
Thirteen of the England squad for the semi-final clash were involved in that defeat.
"Lots of their players want to prove something," said Kolisi. "They have improved compared to before the World Cup. You can see the intent, the work-rate, the aggression they have around the field. It's a completely different team, that's why they are the only unbeaten team in the tournament."
Before their opening Group D game in Marseille on 9 September against Argentina, England had lost seven of their nine games in 2023.
And the calamitous air hovering over the squad seemed to be lingering. Tom Curry was sent off three minutes into the match for a dangerous tackle.
But rather than a 77-minute countdown to ignominy, up stepped George Ford.
Success
Straight of back and firm of purpose, Ford rallied the troops and with his boot bedazzled the South Americans with all of England's points in the 27-10 win.
He orchestrated an equally gritty victory over Japan, which set England fair before Owen Farrell returned from suspension to lead the 71-0 romp against Chile.
With qualification to the last eight assured, England scraped past Samoa before Farrell put down a late Fijian flurry in the last eight to seal progress to the semi-finals.
"It’s a big country, a big team, it’s always special to play against them," said Kolisi. "We don’t play them all the time so it’s always a big game."
Consistency
South Africa's coaches named the same 15 players who started the quarter-final against France last Sunday and they will go into the encounter as the more seasoned of the sides.
After a controlled crushing of Scotland in their opening Group B match on 10 September and a romp past Romania a week later, South Africa lost a bruising match against Ireland on 23 September.
They responded with a 49-18 win over Tonga and they showed their renowned fortitude to withstand the din of a partisan stadium and see off the hosts 29-28.
That success, coupled with Ireland's defeat to New Zealand the previous evening, moved them up one place to the top of the world rankings for the first time since July 2022.
England have also jumped a place in the lists to fifth on the back of their run to the last four.
“Obviously we don’t see ourselves as favourites," added Kolisi.
"We know how good England are, how they play in World Cups, and we’ve seen how hard they work.
"In the World Cup we have seen teams who are not in the top 10 beating teams in the top 10 so it would be silly to think that we're favourites.
"We know exactly what England are going to bring and the motivation they have.”
Focus
England forward Maro Itoje – who featured in the final in Japan – insisted the squad would need to focus on the demands of Paris 2023.
“We have to play the game that’s in front of us – this South African team," said the 28-year-old who has played the full 80 minutes in all of England's games in France.
"We have to be present and in the moment to deal with it.
“They are the world champions," he added. "They’ve had a very good World Cup but we’ve played them twice since the 2019 final. They’ve won one, we’ve won one."
“We’re not talking about a team that’s never lost. We’re not talking about a team that is without fault. They are a good team but so are we."
Nevertheless, an England victory would be considered a surprise especially after the venom hurled towards the head coach Steve Borthwick following an inglorious Six Nations campaign during which France's 53-10 win entered the record books as the heaviest defeat inflicted on an England team at Twickenham.
Just over seven months after that humiliation, England stand 80 minutes away from the final.
Control
“Before the tournament started I talked about what we can control," said Borthwick who announced three changes to the team that ran out for the quarter-final against Fiji in Marseille.
"One of the big things was making sure you continue to build the strengths of your team and how you want your team to play.
"You can’t concern yourself with anybody else. We laid out the path of what we had to do."
Borthwick's counterpart, Jacques Nienaber, hailed England's progress under the former England international.
"The reality is we’re facing a good England side," added Nienaber who will stand down as South Africa boss after the tournament.
"England went into the previous World Cup semi-final against New Zealand probably being the underdog," Nienaber added. "
"We don’t look at history but we know that where we were in 2019, any team can beat any team on the day."
