England head coach Steve Borthwick fears that rugby is in danger of resembling Australian rules football because of the rushed introduction of a law directive designed to create fairer aerial duels.
Borthwick has made four changes for Saturday’s match against South Africa with full-back Freddie Steward, wing Ollie Sleightholme, scrum-half Jack van Poortvliet and flanker Sam Underhill given starts.
The recall of high ball master Steward, successfully predicted by Springboks boss Rassie Erasmus hours before Borthwick named his team, is a nod to the impact on the game caused by World Rugby’s autumn crackdown on ‘escort runners’, who block the path of kick-chasers.
Instead of creating a more open and contestable game as expected, England believe the directive is an example of the law of unintended consequences. Borthwick insists it should have been introduced with greater care.
“You don’t want to turn rugby union into Aussie rules. I thought our game was in pretty good shape. There has been a fundamental change here,” Borthwick said.
“It’s a pretty small sample size so far, but we’re seeing a great increase in the number of kicks, in the number of contestable kicks, in the number of scrums and in the number of loose balls. That’s only going to increase.
“In hindsight, it could have been dealt with differently. We effectively received the information about it a week before we came into camp.
“At that point in time, no players had played with it and we’re now putting it on to high level Tests that are effectively the biggest stage of world rugby other than the World Cup.
“I will be really interested to see where this goes because currently I see it only leading to more kicking and more scrums.
“Yes there will be more unstructured possession but I’m not sure everyone wants to watch more kicking and more scrums. I don’t think anyone wants it to turn into Aussie rules.”
Erasmus believes Steward will be “devastating” because the directive has placed a premium on his expertise in the air and while Borthwick was more measured in his words, he agrees that the 6ft 5in Leicester full-back will now come into his own.
Steward slipped behind George Furbank in the pecking order at 15 midway through this year’s Six Nations but having appeared in just three of England’s 10 Tests so far in 2024, he now finds himself taking centre stage at Allianz Stadium.
“That contestable kicking game means that anyone who has strengths in that area is going to be very important in this game,” Borthwick said.
Furbank and scrum-half Ben Spencer started the last-gasp losses to New Zealand and Australia that have turned Saturday’s showdown into a must-win encounter, but both have jettisoned from the 23 entirely to make way for Steward and Van Poortvliet.
Van Poortvliet was England’s preferred scrum-half heading into the World Cup but he sustained an ankle injury in the warm-up match against Wales at Twickenham and has been overlooked by Borthwick since.
The two other changes to the starting XV are enforced after Tom Curry and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso were ruled out against South Africa because of concussions sustained facing the Wallabies.
They are expected to return for climax to the autumn against Japan on November 24.
Underhill is chosen at openside flanker having overcome an ankle issue that had affected the start of his season while Sleightholme, the scorer of two tries against Australia, is given his first start on the left wing.