Johannesburg is the venue for South Africa’s first action in the Nations Championship as they prepare to take on England on Saturday
South Africa vs England, Saturday 4th July, Johannesburg, KO 17:40 (South African time)
Referee: James Doleman (New Zealand)
Assistant Referees: Andrew Brace (Ireland), Pierre Brousset (France)
TMO: Richard Kelly (New Zealand)
Weather Forecast - Johannesburg
South Africa:
The Springboks tuned up for this tournament with a hit out against the Barbarians in Nelson Mandela Bay on the 20th June, they scored 12 tries and conceded 5 in a 80-31 victory.
South Africa closed out the North vs South end of year internationals in 2025 with a 73-0 demolition of Wales in Cardiff. Prior to that they recorded a 24-13 victory over Ireland in Dublin and also won in Italy (32-14), in France (32-17) and against Japan at Wembley (61-7).
South Africa also won the 2025 Rugby Championship title, winning 4 and losing 2 of their matches. They bounced back from a surprise defeat to the Wallabies (38-22) at Ellis Park in the opening round to beat the same opposition (30-22) in Cape Town. In New Zealand they lost narrowly to the All Blacks in Auckland before a sensational performance in the second match in Wellington saw the Boks record a thumping 43-10 victory. They finished off by thrashing Argentina (67-30) in Durban and although the second game against Los Pumas, staged at Wembley in London, was much closer a 29-27 victory saw the Boks take the title.
In the Nations Championship outright betting markets South Africa are 18/10 favourites to win the title with Hollywoodbets
Nations Championship Results and Fixtures: : R1 England (h), R2 Scotland (h), R3 Wales (h), R4 Italy (a), R5 France (a), R6 Ireland (a)
England:
Earlier this year England had their worst ever 6 Nations, losing 4 of their 5 matches to finish fifth. They started with a comfortable home win over Wales (48-7) but subsequently went down in Scotland (31-20) before suffering a record defeat to Ireland (42-21) at Twickenham. They also lost to Italy (23-18) for the first time but in the final round they put in a much improved display but were just edged out (48-46) by France in Paris.
England won all four of their home matches against the Southern Hemisphere nations in November 2025, getting the better of Australia (25-7), Fiji (38-18), New Zealand (33-19) and finally Argentina (27-23).
Despite the horror show in the 6 Nations England have decided to keep the faith with coach Steve Borthwick, regular skipper captain Maro Itoje has been rested for the first 3 matches of this tournament and Jamie George is expected to take the skippers armband. In the Nations Championship outright betting markets England can be backed at 11/2 to win the title with Hollywoodbets
Nations Championship Results and Fixtures: R1 South Africa (a), R2 Fiji (a), R3 Argentina (a), R4 Australia (h), R5 Japan (h), R6 New Zealand (h)
Recent Head to Head
Nov 2024 INT Twickenham England 20-29 South Africa
Oct 2023 RWC Paris England 15-16 Soutth Africa
Nov 2022 INT Twickenham England 13-27 South Africa
Nov 2021 INT Twickenham England 27-26 South Africa
Nov 2019 RWC Yokohama England 12-32 Soutth Africa
Team News
South Africa: 15 Damian Willemse, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian De Allende, 11 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Grant Williams, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Pieter-Steph Du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (captain), 5 Ruan Nortje, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Thomas Du Toit, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Ox Nche.
Replacements: 16 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 17 Gerhard Steenekamp, 18 Zachary Porthen, 19 Marco van Staden, 20 Cameron Hanekom, 21 Cobus Reinach, 22 Andre Esterhuizen, 23 Canan Moodie
England: 15 George Furbank, 14 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, 13 Tommy Freeman, 12 Seb Atkinson, 11 Cadan Murley, 10 Fin Smith, 9 Jack van Poortvliet, 8 Ben Earl, 7 Tom Curry, 6 Ollie Chessum (vice-captain), 5 George Martin, 4 Alex Coles, 3 Joe Heyes, 2 Jamie George (captain), 1 Ellis Genge (vice-captain)
Replacements: 16 Luke Cowan-Dickie,17 Beno Obano, 18 Asher Opoku-Fordjour, 19 Charlie Ewels, 20 Guy Pepper, 21 Henry Pollock, 22 Alex Mitchell, 23 Marcus Smith
The Betting
Updated 02 July 23h50
South Africa -14.5 points
England +16.5 points
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
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Betting Angle
Bet: South Africa v England
Posted 02 July 23h57
3 units (1-5) England over 18.5 points at 17/20 at Hollywoodbets
The Oracle joined me this week to preview the opening round of the Nations Championship and, during the show, I mentioned that I didn't think the over 52.5 points line in this game would last very long.
Unfortunately, the line moved even quicker than I expected and the total has already moved out to 54.5 before I could get any bets on.
Looking first at the handicap market, South Africa opened around -13.5 and there has been solid support for the Springboks, with some bookmakers moving as high as -16.5. If you shop around though, there is still some -14.5 available.
I’m actually leaning towards England on the handicap, but my main focus is on the points markets. Rather than chase the total points line at its new number, I’m switching to England's team total and backing them to score at least 19 points.
Ellis Park has a long-standing reputation as a high-scoring venue and the away side has scored more than 18 points in each of the last four Tests played there, and in five of the last six overall.
The last time England played at Ellis Park back in 2018, they ended up on the wrong end of a thrilling 42-39 defeat, and I certainly wouldn't mind seeing a repeat of that sort of contest this weekend.
I'll be back on Saturday morning with any final betting thoughts and, potentially, a play in one of the try-scorer markets.
More Rugby Bets
This week we have previews and Brent Graham’s bets for New Zealand vs France, Australia vs Ireland and South Africa vs England. More Nations Series and World U20 Championship bets from Brent and other members of our community will be posted on the weekly rugby thread on our brand new discussion forum. If you haven't done so already, register a forum account here.
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.