England turn to Steward for South Africa aerial battle

LONDON :England fullback Freddie Steward, scrumhalf Jack van Poortvliet, flanker Sam Underhill and winger Ollie Sleightholme will all start against South Africa on Saturday as coach Steve Borthwick seeks to end a run of four successive defeats.
Steward was an England regular before losing his slot to George Furbank during the Six Nations, but his aerial abilities, combined with law changes that encourage more contestable kicks, helped persuade Borthwick to bring him back and leave Furbank out of the matchday squad named on Thursday.
Van Poortvliet, a favourite of Borthwick’s when he led Leicester to the Premiership title, was also first choice before an ankle injury kept him out of the World Cup and takes over from Ben Spencer, with Harry Randall again providing bench cover.
It will be a big blow to Spencer, who started the defeats against New Zealand and Australia, his first starts in a six-year career, but after eight international appearances he is still without a win, having played in seven defeats and a draw.
Sleightholme, who looked sharp when scoring two tries off the bench last week, gets his first start in place of concussion-absent Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, with Tommy Freeman switching to the right wing and Tom Roebuck on the bench.
Underhill, who started nine consecutive tests before being dropped for the November opener against New Zealand, is back at openside flanker after Tom Curry was also ruled out after suffering a concussion against New Zealand.
Having lost twice in New Zealand in July then at home to the All Blacks and Australia in the last two weeks – after leading all four games late on – Borthwick is desperate to get back to winning ways.
CONTESTABLE KICKS
“Fred’s training has been exceptional, his attitude has been brilliant and the team that kicks more contestable kicks than anybody in the world is South Africa,” Borthwick said of the giant Steward.
“Everything shows they’re head and shoulders above everybody in terms of the number of times they kick contestable.
“Fred’s clearly got a super strength there so that has a factor to it.
“Similarly JVP (Jack van Poortvliet) – he’s been terrific. In the first couple of weeks training here he has just grown and grown. I’m seeing his speed right back to the very best it was. So I’m excited to see him go on Saturday.”
England face a daunting task against the world champions who, having added the Rugby Championship to their CV, got their European tour off to a solid start with a 32-15 victory over Scotland last Sunday.
Coach Rassie Erasmus has made 12 changes from the Murrayfield match, saying he needs to rotate his squad due to the short turnaround.
England’s last meeting with South Africa was the World Cup semi-final just over a year ago when the Springboks snatched a late 16-15 victory.
“In that semi-final there were chances that we did not take in a very tight game,” Borthwick said.
“We think we’ve developed our game a little bit from where we were in 2023. We feel there’s some more attacking opportunities within us and there’s more ball movement within us.
“So we’re a different team than we were then and we’re aiming to cause them some problems.”
England team to play South Africa on Saturday (1540GMT)
15. Freddie Steward (Leicester Tigers, 34 caps)
14. Tommy Freeman (Northampton Saints, 13 caps)
13. Ollie Lawrence (Bath Rugby, 29 caps)
12. Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs, 67 caps)
11. Ollie Sleightholme (Northampton Saints, 3 caps)
10. Marcus Smith (Harlequins, 37 caps)
9. Jack van Poortvliet (Leicester Tigers, 14 caps)
1. Ellis Genge (Bristol Bears, 64 caps) – vice-captain
2. Jamie George (Saracens, 95 caps) – captain
3. Will Stuart (Bath Rugby, 43 caps)
4. Maro Itoje (Saracens, 86 caps) – vice-captain
5. George Martin (Leicester Tigers, 17 caps)
6. Chandler Cunningham-South (Harlequins, 9 caps)
7. Sam Underhill (Bath Rugby, 38 caps)
8. Ben Earl (Saracens, 35 caps) – vice-captain
Replacements:
16. Luke Cowan-Dickie (Sale Sharks, 42 caps)
17. Fin Baxter (Harlequins, 4 caps)
18. Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers, 117 caps)
19. Nick Isiekwe (Saracens, 13 caps)
20. Alex Dombrandt (Harlequins, 19 caps)
21. Harry Randall (Bristol Bears, 9 caps)
22. George Ford (Sale Sharks, 98 caps) – vice captain
23. Tom Roebuck (Sale Sharks, 1 cap)