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England confirm 2021 fixtures against Wallabies and Springboks

By Online Editors
England's Dan Cole gets lifted up in a scrum during the World Cup final loss to South Africa. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

England will welcome Australia and World Cup champions South Africa to Twickenham as part of their 2021 Autumn Internationals series next November. The RFU have announced the two fixtures this morning, with a third, to be played against an emerging nation, to be confirmed at a later date.

Eddie Jones' squad will begin their Autumn 2021 Test schedule against an emerging nation on Sunday November 6, before welcoming the Wallabies to Twickenham a week later. It will be the eighth time England have faced Australia under head coach Jones and the fourth time on home soil.

England will then finish the window with a rematch of last year's World Cup final as the Springboks come to London for the first time since 2018.

The game will be the last leg of the Springboks' three-match tour of Europe in November 2021. Last week it was confirmed that South Africa will play Scotland on 13 November in Edinburgh, a week before the Twickenham Test, with an opening Autumn Test fixture yet to be announced.

England head coach Eddie Jones said: "These will be some good games of rugby and tough tests for us as we work to improve ourselves as a team.

"South Africa are world champions and we’ll be looking to benchmark ourselves against them.

"Australia are rapidly improving, have a lot of new talent coming through and good coaches like Dave Rennie and Scott Wisemantel, who we know well.

"We’ve not had the chance to play southern hemisphere teams this year, so it will be a good chance to see where we are up to and hopefully some great rugby for our supporters to enjoy."

South Africa coach Rassie Erasmus said the two countries share a special rivalry.

"Any match involving England and the Springboks is always special," Erasmus said.

"England are an incredibly proud rugby nation and in Eddie Jones they have an astute coach who will no doubt be working on a plan to outsmart the Springboks for our rematch at Twickenham.

"The history and rivalry between our two countries always make for a great contest and we are looking forward to play the English at their Twickenham fortress where it will require a special performance to match them."

The RFU are hoping to be in a position to release ticket information early in the New Year, and the dates of all three fixtures are subject to confirmation.

England 2021 Autumn Internationals at Twickenham Stadium

Saturday 6 November* – England v TBC Emerging Nation

Saturday 13 November* – England v Australia

Saturday 20 November* – England v South Africa