South Africa captain Siya Kolisi said, at the announcement of an unchanged Springboks line-up for Saturday's semi-final against England at Stade de France, the Springboks does not look at the history between themselves and England to motivate them for Saturday.
“We know what happened last year [South Africa beat England 27-13 at Twickenham] and the previous World Cup [South Africa won 32-12 in the final]. Lots of their players were there and want to prove something. They have improved compared to before the World Cup. You can see the intent, the work rate, and the aggression they have around the field. It's a completely different team, that's why they are the only unbeaten team in the tournament.
“We are not silly. Our motivation comes from within. They will have their motives and so will we, we play for one another, for the jersey and the people back home.”
Kolisi said “The rivalry has been around long before my time. It’s a big country, and a big team, it’s always special to play against them at Twickenham. They play hard. Even after the World Cup final, we lost the next game [27-26 at Twickenham in November 2021] so it’s always tough to play against them. We don’t play them all the time, it’s rare that we get to play them so it’s always a big game."
“As for people hating them, I don’t know or worry about that. That’s nothing to do with me. Everyone we play, we just want to show who we are as a team. On the field they are a great team, they have improved a lot and it’s always good to play against them because it doesn’t happen too often.”
The Springboks do not see themselves being outright favourites against England: “Obviously we don’t see it that way because we know how good England are, how they play in World Cups, and the team has changed and we’ve seen how hard they work. It doesn’t matter who we are playing. We need to get through this game. In the World Cup, we have seen teams who are not in the top 10 beating teams in the top 10 so it would be silly to think like that. We know exactly what they are going to bring and the motivation they have," Kolisi said.