Mike Brown has given Planet Rugby an exclusive account of England's chaotic 2018 Ellis Park build-up — Eddie Jones's infamous Pennyhill simulation, where staff dressed in Springbok shirts, fired green flares and cooked braais while hurling abuse at players walking to training. Brown found it more comedy than preparation, and the altitude strategy — deliberately staying at sea level and flying up late — proved far more damaging. England led 24-3 before the Highveld took its toll, eventually losing 42-39 in what became Rassie Erasmus's first win in charge and, in hindsight, the opening chapter of back-to-back World Cup glory.
With England returning to Ellis Park now under very different circumstances — Borthwick's side arriving off a poor Six Nations rather than with Jones-era swagger, and having done actual altitude prep this time — Brown draws a pointed parallel. Then as now, England needed a jolt. He frames the current rough patch not as crisis but as necessary adversity, pointing to the post-2015 World Cup humiliation that preceded an England Grand Slam as proof that trauma can accelerate growth. His verdict: the result matters less than whether this group uses the experience as a turning point. Worth the full read for the vivid Ellis Park atmosphere detail and Brown's candid read on what England's younger players still lack.