England attack coach Richard Wigglesworth said they were delighted with their 30-24 win against Fiji. He said they are looking forward to an exciting week before they face the Springboks in Paris on Saturday at 21:00 in the second semi-final of the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
Wigglesworth said he is convinced that England can beat the Springboks: "A semi-final will be emotional anyway, we will make sure that we are fresh going into Saturday night both physically and mentally."
"We have experience on the field that knows how to win tight games and knows how to win World Cup knockout games."
"We are talking about one of the best rugby teams ever, aiming to go back-to-back, who have evolved and have had a solid coaching team for six years. They have a core group of players and they have added quality to it. They are an impressive outfit."
Richard Wigglesworth said being unbeaten does not count for much: "South Africa proved that last time, they broke the mould by losing to New Zealand [in the pool stage] last time. They lost to Ireland this time and again found their best rugby in the biggest moment."
"We were starting from a completely different base than they [South Africa] were, but we need to work out a way of playing this week, playing smart enough this week to get ourselves in this contest to try and win a semi-final. We the challenge because South Africa is not only winning those tight games. they are playing better and better."
He said the coaching strategy will be different in preparing for the Springboks: "The Springboks have evolved a lot ... how they move the ball or how they exit ... have got more variety ... they have multiple threats now."
"Our preparation will be a little bit different than usual as usually, you will be analysing one team, last week but we had to analyse two. We will put a bit more meat on the bones of that this morning, we have already met and we will be meeting again and sending away with a list of stuff to look at and get right so we can give the players as much clarity as we can on areas that we want to go after. It's about simplifying as much as we can so they can put their game out on the field. It will be pretty thorough, but enjoyable."
"We will adapt, we won't be on the field as much as you would be on a seven-day turnaround. How we learn off the field, how we manage our energy getting to a second-last week of the tournament will be really important."