Leaving captain Maro Itoje out of next month's titanic meeting with world champions South Africa is the correct decision, says England senior assistant coach Richard Wigglesworth.

Itoje has been rested for the 4 July match against the Springboks as well as Tests against Fiji and Argentina on subsequent weekends in order to give him extended time away from rugby.

The 31-year-old has exceeded World Rugby's recommended limit of 30 matches a season in the 2023-24 and 2024-25 campaigns.

He captained the British and Irish Lions in Australia last summer and will lead England into the Rugby World Cup in Australia next year.

"I'm incredibly happy that we've been able to do right by him," said Wigglesworth.

"He has had a lot on, not just last year but for the last however many years of his career, so we are lucky to be in that position with the strength in depth in that position - so Maro is going to take his rest."

Leicester's George Martin is back in the England set-up after making his comeback from a 14-month injury lay-off in April, while Northampton lock Alex Coles' development was one of the few positives from a disappointing Six Nations campaign.

Ollie Chessum, who shone in the final-round defeat by France, is another second-row option, but could also be deployed at blindside flanker. Bath's Charlie Ewels and Gloucester's Arthur Clark are also part of the Nations Championship squad.

Wigglesworth, who played alongside Itoje at Saracens and England, backed his captain to "come back better".

"What Maro does as well as anyone is use his time really well, so I'm looking forward to catching up after he's had a bit of rest and he's flying," he added.

The format of the new Nations Championship - which pits six northern hemisphere sides against six of their southern rivals over two Test windows and culminates in a November weekend of play-off matches - has handed England a testing itinerary.

After playing the Springboks in Johannesburg, they face Fiji in Liverpool and Argentina in Santiago del Estero.

However Wigglesworth shrugged off concerns about how the travel would impact preparations, adding that Northampton and Exeter players would fly to South Africa with the rest of the squad on Wednesday despite only joining up on Monday after they contested the Prem final last weekend.

"We're all going to stick together on this," he said. "It is an exciting challenge that we're not going to shy away from.

"There will be some adaptions on a couple of training sessions, but we get well looked after with how we travel.

"There's people doing far tougher things than some business-class flights, so we'll be right."

South Africa coach Rassie Erasmus has said he is unsure what to expect from England at Ellis Park, as they attempt to move on from an unprecedented four defeats in a single Six Nations campaign.

"Tactically, Steve [Borthwick, England head coach] is someone who works with numbers and chases trends, and that's always difficult to prepare against," Erasmus said.

"If I say we know exactly what they'll do next Saturday, I'd be lying."

Erasmus has recently recruited two backroom staff from England's set-up to help his preparations.

Defence coach Felix Jones re-joined the Springboks in February 2025 after an ill-fated 10-month spell as part of England's set-up, while England's chief analyst Joe Lewis swapped to South Africa in March., external

In addition, Englishman Andy Edwards, previously Saracens' long-serving strength and conditioning coach, took up a role with the Springboks in 2020.

Meanwhile Erasmus has backed back row Henry Pollock to have an impact for England over the summer.

The 21-year-old put in successive superb performances to help Northampton to the Prem title, but his exuberant on-pitch persona had attracted flak from some South African pundits.

Schalk Burger memorably described Pollock as "a Tik-Tok dancer who plays some rugby", , externalwhile Duane Vermeulen, fellow former Springbok back row, now an assistant to Erasmus, said "there's a hell of a lot of people that obviously dislike him"., external

"People make a big deal about certain players, but I don't always think the players themselves want that attention," said Erasmus, comparing Pollock to his own skipper Siya Kolisi.

"What counts is what they do on the field, and recently, he's been doing that. If I were coaching him, I'd only look at his output, and that has been exceptional."