South Africa star claimed Steve Borthwick impact "not possible" ahead of England semi-final

South African fly-half Handre Pollard worked with Steve Borthwick when they were at Leicester Tigers but felt that England were too late in appointing him as Eddie Jones' successor

Handre Pollard warned England that they could've been too late in appointing Steve Borthwick as he prepares to face his former coach this weekend.

The South Africa fly-half was called-up by the Springboks midway through the tournament having been injured when the squads were originally announced. Pollard had been gearing up for the new Premiership season with Leicester Tigers having moved to Welford Road when Borthwick was in charge.

However he only saw the 44-year-old for a matter of months as Borthwick opted to answer England's SOS call in December following the dismissal of Eddie Jones. The RFU made the decision to change the man in the coaching box less than a year out from the World Cup, which many saw as a gamble, and Pollard too thought they may have been rolling the dice too late.

He told the Times last year: “It’s a difficult one. It’s tough because, basically, the Europeans have that Six Nations, that’s what they have, and a couple of warm-up games. It’s not a lot of time, so it will be tough. I’m not sure if it’s possible. But, you never know.

"We felt Rassie’s impact immediately, by the personality he is, and the way he does stuff, but in terms of rugby and on the field, he said with our new defensive system, ‘Eighteen games, that’s what it’ll take.’ He knew that’s how long we had before the World Cup. It probably clicked a little earlier than 18 games.

"But I would say it took us a good year to find ourselves, really understand each other, knowing where we stood with each other, and then, in 2019, we really kicked off with results, as you could see. 2018 was up and down when we were trying to find our feet.”

Erasmus now has South Africa two games away from successive World Cup triumphs, a feat only achieved once before. Their semi-final assignment will be an England side who are yet to lose at the tournament, the only remaining team with an undefeated record in France.

Borthwick's impact at Twickenham has by no means been immediate, losing his first game in charge as England were beaten by Scotland at home en route to winning just two of their five Six Nations games. Warm-up games for the World Cup then did little for optimism as England won just once in four.

The Red Rose though have now won five on the bounce after their quarter-final success over Fiji as Borthwick makes the most of a fortuitous draw to guide England to the semi-finals, where they know the odds are stacked against them. “I don’t really care what other people think of us, I care about the development of the team,” the England head coach said. “I said this is a team and squad packed full of talented players who perform on the big occasion and they have performed on the big occasion.”