Rassie Erasmus says South Africa do not buy in to criticism of opponents England

Rassie Erasmus insists South Africa will not be lulled into complacency by the negativity surrounding the ability of World Cup semi-final opponents England.

The reigning champions are red-hot favourites to win Saturday’s Paris showdown with Steve Borthwick’s side to keep their title defence on track.

England came into the tournament in dismal form and with plenty of fans and pundits predicting a pool-stage exit.

Yet Borthwick’s men are the only unbeaten side still standing and the northern hemisphere’s sole representative in the last four.

While England’s relatively smooth progress has been aided by a favourable route, Springboks director of rugby Erasmus is braced for a “very tough test” and highlighted the similar statistics of the two nations to emphasise his point.

“If we think England is bad because people from outside say that they are not doing well… our reality is the truth, not the reality that people create outside our camp,” he told a media briefing on Monday.

“We know from the Premiership, a lot of our players play against them, and we know Borthwick is an excellent coach which he showed at Leicester and as a captain and a player for England.

“It will be a very tough test against a team that hasn’t lost a game and more or less conceded the same amount of tries and racked up the same amount of points (as us).

“If you look at England, they scored 19 tries and got 180 points and we scored 26 tries and also have 180 points.

“Then if you look on the points conceded side, they’ve conceded six tries, we’ve conceded seven and they’ve conceded 63 points and we’re 62.

“So, you can know how close this game (will be) if you just look at stats – and I know stats don’t always tell the whole picture.”

Three-time winners