With England heading to Ellis Park on a four-Test losing streak, Mike Tindall and Jonny May have offered a sobering preview drawn from hard personal experience. Tindall, who largely held his own against the Boks in the early 2000s, frames it simply — you know the pain is coming, and it's about getting mentally right for a tear-up. May's experience was grimmer: his peak England years coincided with Erasmus's Springboks, and he watched the contests get progressively harder and less enjoyable. His description of life as an England back against the Boks — living on scraps, no time or space, niggly and physical — is a useful reminder of exactly what Borthwick's outside backs are walking into. The piece is light on tactical analysis but heavy on atmosphere, and for anyone wanting a sense of how England's squad might be feeling ahead of Ellis Park, it's worth a read.